2 useful sites for configuring Vmware ESX Networking via CLI. The material of this blog is taken from the 2 website.
- Configuring networking from the ESX service console command line (kb.vmware.com)
- New User’s Guide to Configuring VMware ESX Networking via CLI (blog.scottlowe.org)
In summary, there are 2 important commands you will need to know
- esxcfg-vswitch: (Manipulate vswitch and port)
- esxcfg-nics: (View network card)
1. Ensure that your Network Cards is connected
# esxcfg-nics –l
Name PCI Driver Link Speed Duplex Description vmnic0 06:00.00 tg3 Up 1000Mbps Full Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet vmnic1 07:00.00 tg3 Up 1000Mbps Full Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet
* In the Link Column “Up” means that the Network Adapter is up and connected.
2. List the current virtual switches
# esxcfg-vswitch –l
Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports Uplinks vSwitch0 32 3 32 vmnic0 PortGroup Name Internal ID VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks VM Network portgroup2 0 0 vmnic0
3. Creating a new switch
# esxcfg-vswitch –a <vSwitch Name>
4. Create the Service Console portgroup on this new virtual switch
# esxcfg-vswitch -A <Port Group Name> <vSwitch Name>
For example,
# esxcfg-vswitch –A “Service Console” vSwitch1
5. To Link the Physcial Switch to a vSwitch
# esxcfg-vswitch -L <Physical NIC> <vSwitch Name>
For example,
# esxcfg-vswitch –L vmnic0 vSwitch1
6. To unlink the the Physcial Switch to a vSwitch
# esxcfg-vswitch -U <Physical NIC> <vSwitch Name>
7. Verify the new virtual switch configuration
# esxcfg-vswitch –l
8. Delete a vSwitch
# esxcfg-vswitch -d <vSwitch Name>