ethtool -p fails in ESXi 6.5

[Noiden]

I am trying to figure out vmnic's physical NIC and using this guide,

http://www.running-system.com/how-to-blink-a-vmnic-on-your-esxi-host-to-identify-the-physical-nic/

But when I run ethtool I get the following error,

BASH

Can not get control fd: No such file or directory 

I get the same error on every vmnic.

Is there someway to get ethtool to work or blink the network card some other way?

I don't want to remove the network cable and add that to one and one, the blink thing seems nice. 😃

Thanks.

[Balteck71]

look at /dev/ folder. Do you see vmnic# files?

[Noiden]

No,

ls /dev/vm*

/dev/vmwMgmtInfo   /dev/vmwMgmtNode0  /dev/vmwMgmtNode1  /dev/vmwMgmtNode2  /dev/vmwMgmtNode3  /dev/vmwMgmtNode4  /dev/vmwMgmtNode5

but I get the vmnic's with esxcfg-nics -l

esxcfg-nics -l

Name    PCI          Driver      Link Speed      Duplex MAC Address       MTU    Description

vmnic0  0000:06:00.0 igbn        Up   1000Mbps   Full   90:b1:1c:32:61:99 1500   Intel Corporation I350 Gigabit Network Connection

vmnic1  0000:06:00.1 igbn        Up   1000Mbps   Full   90:b1:1c:32:61:9a 1500   Intel Corporation I350 Gigabit Network Connection

vmnic2  0000:01:00.0 ntg3        Down 0Mbps      Half   00:10:18:f6:b6:d6 1500   Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet

vmnic3  0000:01:00.1 ntg3        Down 0Mbps      Half   00:10:18:f6:b6:d7 1500   Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet

vmnic4  0000:03:00.0 ntg3        Down 0Mbps      Half   00:10:18:f6:ba:3a 1500   Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet

vmnic5  0000:03:00.1 ntg3        Up   1000Mbps   Full   00:10:18:f6:ba:3b 1500   Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet

vmnic6  0000:02:00.0 ntg3        Up   1000Mbps   Full   00:10:18:f6:b7:08 1500   Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet

vmnic7  0000:02:00.1 ntg3        Up   1000Mbps   Full   00:10:18:f6:b7:09 1500   Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet

[Balteck71]

I have the same problem with different esxi.

Some have vmnic# on dev, some others not.

ethtool looks for vmnic# on dev folder.

But you miss them and you got:

Can not get control fd: No such file or directory

As workaround you can put the nic in down and you can see which led is off (but you lose connection):

esxcli network nic down -n vmnic#

to put it in up:

esxcli network nic up -n vmnic#

Maybe some gurus know where to link the vmnic# device as vmnic# file in /dev

[Noiden]

Thanks, I might do that as a "last resort", the best had been som kind of blink...

Can't I symlink vmnic where they now are to /dev/vmnic*

[Balteck71]

You can symlink vmnic0, vmnic1... in dev. I've already did for an HBA controller that a have the wrong name in dev for the management vib.

The problem is: what is the name of device instead of vmnic0 inside dev?

[Noiden]

I don't know... I don't find any links to /dev and the vmnics here is some information from esx.conf

cat /etc/vmware/esx.conf |grep -i vmnic
/net/vmkernelnic/child[0000]/macFromPnic = "vmnic0"
/net/pnic/child[0007]/name = "vmnic7"
/net/pnic/child[0006]/name = "vmnic6"
/net/pnic/child[0004]/name = "vmnic4"
/net/pnic/child[0003]/name = "vmnic3"
/net/pnic/child[0005]/name = "vmnic5"
/net/pnic/child[0001]/name = "vmnic1"
/net/pnic/child[0002]/name = "vmnic2"
/net/pnic/child[0000]/name = "vmnic0"
/net/vswitch/child[0000]/uplinks/child[0000]/pnic = "vmnic0"
/net/vswitch/child[0000]/teamPolicy/uplinks[0000]/pnic = "vmnic0"
/net/vswitch/child[0000]/portgroup/child[0000]/teamPolicy/uplinks[0000]/pnic = "vmnic0"
/net/vswitch/child[0001]/uplinks/child[0000]/pnic = "vmnic7"
/net/vswitch/child[0001]/teamPolicy/uplinks[0000]/pnic = "vmnic7"
/vmkdevmgr/pci/m00000001/alias = "vmnic0"
/vmkdevmgr/pci/s00000004.00/alias = "vmnic6"
/vmkdevmgr/pci/s00000002.00/alias = "vmnic4"
/vmkdevmgr/pci/s00000002.01/alias = "vmnic5"
/vmkdevmgr/pci/s00000001.00/alias = "vmnic2"
/vmkdevmgr/pci/m00000002/alias = "vmnic1"
/vmkdevmgr/pci/s00000001.01/alias = "vmnic3"
/vmkdevmgr/pci/s00000004.01/alias = "vmnic7"
/vmkdevmgr/logical/pci#m00000001#0/alias = "vmnic0"
/vmkdevmgr/logical/pci#s00000002.00#0/alias = "vmnic4"
/vmkdevmgr/logical/pci#s00000001.00#0/alias = "vmnic2"
/vmkdevmgr/logical/pci#s00000004.01#0/alias = "vmnic7"
/vmkdevmgr/logical/pci#m00000002#0/alias = "vmnic1"
/vmkdevmgr/logical/pci#s00000004.00#0/alias = "vmnic6"
/vmkdevmgr/logical/pci#s00000001.01#0/alias = "vmnic3"
/vmkdevmgr/logical/pci#s00000002.01#0/alias = "vmnic5"
/device/00000:006:00.1/vmkname = "vmnic1"
/device/00000:003:00.0/vmkname = "vmnic4"
/device/00000:002:00.1/vmkname = "vmnic7"
/device/00000:001:00.1/vmkname = "vmnic3"
/device/00000:006:00.0/vmkname = "vmnic0"
/device/00000:001:00.0/vmkname = "vmnic2"
/device/00000:002:00.0/vmkname = "vmnic6"
/device/00000:003:00.1/vmkname = "vmnic5"