Troubleshooting Service Console Networking

If certain parts of the service console’s networking are misconfigured, you cannot access your ESX Server 3 host with the VI Client. If this happens, you can reconfigure networking by connecting directly to the service console and using the following service console commands:

•	esxcfg-vswif -l

Provides a list of the service console’s current network interfaces.

Check that vswif0 is present and that the current IP address and Netmask are correct.

•	esxcfg-vswitch -l

Provides a list of current virtual switch configurations.

Check that the uplink adapter configured for the service console is connected to the appropriate physical network.

•	exscfg-nics -l

Provides a list of current network adapters.

Check that the uplink adapter configured for the service console is up and that the speed and duplex are both correct.

•	esxcfg-nics -s

Changes the speed of a network adapter.

•	esxcfg-nics -d

Changes the duplex of a network adapter.

•	esxcfg-vswif -i vswifX

Changes the service console’s IP address.

•	esxcfg-vswif -n vswifX

Changes the service console’s netmask.

•	esxcfg-vswitch -U

Removes the uplink for the service console

•	esxcfg-vswitch -L

Changes the uplink for the service console.

If you encounter long waits when using esxcfg-* commands, the DNS might be misconfigured. The esxcfg-* commands require that DNS be configured so that localhost name resolution works properly. This requires that the /etc/hosts file contain an entry for the configured IP address and the 127.0.0.1 localhost address.