vCenter 4.1 Host Profile - Networking Issue

[pegasus00720111]

We've noticed that in vCenter 4.1, when applying Host Profles to our ESXi hosts, that the Management Network port group is changed from vmk0 to vmk1 and the VMkernal (vmotion) port group is changed from vmk1 to vmk0.  This causes the DCUI on the ESXi host to dislpay the VMotion IP address instead of the Management IP address.

Doing some research this appears to be a Host Profile issue and no  ETA yet for a fix

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1656422#1656422

But, I guess my main concern is that we already have serveral ESXi hosts in production now, and have been for over 8 months with the Management Network being on vmk1 instead of vmk0.  Are there any known issues with the Management Network being on something other than vmk0?

[sflanders]

No. The order of vmkernel interfaces and what operation they before does not matter. Hope this helps!

[pegasus00720111]

Ok, I just wanted to verify cause this has caused me some concern since 6 of our ESXi 4 hosts that are clustered and currently in production have the Management Network on vmk1 instead of vmk0 and display the VMotion IP address on the ESXi console.  I just want to make certain this is a display glitch where the ESXi console is just displaying the IP information of vmk0 not taking into account whether it is the VMotion or Management Network, and that it's not effecting any other functionality. Like I've said, we've had these servers up in production for about 8 months now and have not noticed any issues yet but are just starting to put more of a load on these servers and wasn't sure if we should look at rebuilding them.

Also, this may be a stupid question, but is it a normal function of VMkernal to be able to enter the VMotion IP address in a URL and get the ESXi
Welcome screen like you would if you put in the Management IP address?  Or should you only get this page with the Management IP address.  I just wanted to confirm since I can plug in both the VMotion IP and the Management IP and they both bring me to the ESXi 4 welcome screen where you can download the vSphere client.

Thanks,

[sflanders]

In ESXi the Service Console was removed and now the only management interfaces that can be created are VMkernel interfaces. As such, it would make sense that each VMkernel interface would display the ESXi welcome screen. I have never tested with the VMotion VMkernel interface as in all environments I have deployed it the VMotion interface has always been in a non-routable IP space. I just tested in my home lab where the Management, VMotion, and VMkernel interfaces were in the same routable IP block and confirmed I see the welcome screen from each interface. Long story short, this is expected behavior.

Hope this helps!

[pegasus00720111]

I just wanted to see if anyone here had any updates or insight regarding this issue.  We are still chugging along with the vmotion port group on vmk0 and the managemet port group on vmk1, and of course the ESXi DCUI shows the IP of the vmotion port group.  Like I mentioned before this wasn't caught early on and we have been in production and getting downtime for maintenance is difficult.  We were looking at waiting until a scheduled upgade of ESXi to apply the host profile fix but may be months away.  So far we haven't noticed any issues.  We have about 100 VMs on the 6 node cluster. Is the ESXi console just reporting back the IP of whatever is assigned to vmk0 without taking into account whether it is the vmotion or management port group, and that is the extent of the bug (a display issue).  Or, is it required that the management port group be on vmk0?  We have been running like this since August '10.  If it really isnt an issue beyond the host profile switching vmk ports (if what resides on what vmk port doesnt matter) and the ESXi console just always displaying the IP of vmk0 (thus a display issue), then maybe we do not need to reconfigure every host in our production cluster if we havent noticed problems this far out.

Thanks

[bulletprooffool]

Perhaps change the setting round on your existing hosts and default your config the other way round?

I realise this is a workaround, but at least it will provide consistency?