In this post I am going to take you through installing vCenter server 7 step by step.

Pre-requirement if you are upgrading from previous version of vCetner make sure you understand that only 6.5 and 6.7 supports upgrade to vCetner 7.

Login to the VMware website and download the vCenter Server

Link https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/info?slug=datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere/7_0

The steps to install vCetner 7 very similar to installing vCetner 6.5 or 6.7 for that matter, I have taken screenshots when deploying my vCenter so hope you can follow them easily.

The full Video session of installing the VCSA can be found here:

So, let’s get started we have two states during the installation. State 1 is deployment and Stage 2 is configuration.

.

Mount the ISO

Right Click and Mount

Open the directory called vcsa-ui-installer.

This has the Graphical Interactive installer for Linux, MAC and Windows OS.

I am using Windows 10 I will open win32.

Scroll down and locate the file called installer and right-click to run as an administrator as shown below,

Stage 1

Stage 1 is deploying the VCSA appliance VM on the ESXi host or the vCenter you may have selected.

You will find 4 options:

1. Install – new installation
2. Upgrade – to upgrade from 6.5 or 6.7 vCenters
3. Migrate – vCenter 7 does not have a Windows based vCetner, so we will need to migrate it to VCSA ( vCenter Server Appliance. )
4. Restore – to restore corrupted vCenter from backup.

Another thing to remember is from vCetner Server 7 we will only have internal PSC so if you do have external PSC they will converge during the setup.

Click on Install

Click Next

Accept End User Agreement and click I accept the terms of the license agreement.

Click Next

In this step, we will be selecting the target where we will be deploying our new or upgrade vCenter Server. In my example as it’s a brand new setup, I chose to deploy on the freshly installed ESXi 7 host. Provide the root password.

Click Next

the certificate or ssl certificate warning, pops up

click Yes accept

Step 4- set up vCenter Server VM, here we will be giving the new name of our vCenter 7 example vcsa-01.lab.local

Then you will need to set the root password and confirm it.

Click Next

For my lab setup I will be selecting Tiny. However, a simple rule to follow is If it’s for your lab environment and you will never exceed 10 ESX host or 100 VM’s use Tiny If it’s for dev and you may increase this limit always go for the higher option. same applies for medium if there is a chance that you will go over this limit always chose the higher option Large. and if you may exceed the limit for large chose X-Large. Also, be mindful that more resources are required as you choose the bigger deployment.

Click Next

Step 6 you will be selecting which datastore ( datastore is the storage ) where we will be installing the VCSA. I have only got one local disk usually in a production environment you will be having shared storage and you can choose one of the shared LUN / datastore.

Note I have select the tick for Enable Thin Disk Mode. This is to only use the data as it grows and not allocate/ provision the disk upfront.

Click Next

Step 7 an important point to note that vCenter is quite depended on DNS if you don’t have one at home for your lab I would suggest you stick to the IPaddress . so on the FQDN just give the ipaddress 192.168.1.95 instead of the name like I have given above vcsa-01.lab.local.

select static and assign the IPaddress, give the subnet mask, Default gateway, and DNS only if you have one or usually this is your broadbacd router at home and same as gateway ipaddress.

Click Next

Step 8 Review the options you have selected and click Finish.

You can see the progress started

You could also log in to the ESXi host or the vCetner if you are deploying to an existing vCenter and check the deployment of the VM as shown below.

Once stage 1 is completed you will be starting the next Stage

Note: If you are already having a vCenter that you are upgrading or migrating from this is the right time to take a snapshot.

Stage 2

Stage 2 is set up of VCSA appliance copy configure setup SSO domain or join an existing domain if you already got one and wish to join it.

Click on Stage 2 and click Next

Step 2 vCenter server configuration: you can setup a new ntp server if you wish or select sync time with the ESXi host, you can choose if you like to enable the SSH access not recommended on the production environment.

Click Next

Step 3 you will setup a new SSO Domain or Join an existing one. Here you will see that if you had a previous setup of external PSC the vCetner server installation is going to Converge it and integrated it to the vCenter.

For my setup I will be setting up a new SSO doain called vlab.vsphere.local setup the administrator password and confirm it.

Click Next

Step 4 you can choose to join the CEIP.

Click Next

Step 5 Review all the configuration and click on Finish.

You will be prompted with the Warning that you will not be able to pause or stop the installation.

Click Ok to start the installation.

You can track the progress of the vCenter server.

Once the installation is completed you will get the URL to login

Click Close

Congratulations you have successfully installed a new vCenter server in your environment.

You can connect to the vCetner using the url https://vcsa-01.lab.local

Test the login using the administrator@vlab.vsphere.local as my sso domain is vlab.

As we have all been hearing about VMware’s new version of vSphere 7, finally it has been released on 2nd of April 2020. Back in March VMware has had a huge announcement about the new version and the new app transformation initiative by them. I was a part of bloggers early access program which gave me insight into these new features.

vCenter 7 and vSphere 7 has always been the heart of the VMware technology, they have taken it a step further by integrating them with Kubernetes. However, it will be a part of VMware Cloud Foundation 4.

You can download the new release from the links below:

vCenter 7 = https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VC700&productId=974&rPId=45006

ESX 7 = https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI700&productId=974&rPId=45006

to learn more about the new features of vCenter 7 and ESX 7 you can watch this YouTube video which covers some of the cool stuff.

Some of the new features are given below:

VMware Cloud Foundation 4

vCenter Server Profiles

Content Library with version control

New and improved DRS

vSphere 7 and vSGX Intel Software Guard Extension

With the new release with vCetner 7, there is a new and improved Distributed Resource Scheduler ( DRS ) and in this post, we will go through some comparison with the original DRS and the new DRS.

In the Orignal DRS which has been there since VMware introduced, no doubt there has been enhancements and additions to it example we only had Compute DRS later VMware added Storage DRS leveraging vMotion and Storage vMotion of course

Orginal DRS Cluster centric

Runs every 5 minutes

Uses Cluster -wide Standard

Uses Cluster-wide Standard deviation model

VMware has done great thinking about how the new DRS 2.0 should work and they have changed the algorithm to work on the modern application.

The New DRS is Workload Centric so instantly we get better performance

Improved DRS

Workload Centric

Runs every 1 minute

Use the VM DRS score based on granted memory (New Matrix)

Let’s discuss how this new DRS works a little bit. VMware has started using a new matrix for workload, or VM. its called VMDRS Score

Improved DRS using VM DRS Score

VM DRS is necessary because with the modern-day application we need to focus on the VM / Workload perform as appose to cluster performance which the Orignal DRS cared about.

so we have a fundamental change on the way the improved DRS works using VM DRS score which is the foundation of the DRS. lets a closer look at it.

we already explained that the new improved DRS runs every 1 minute.

We have in the UI a lower bucket score from 0 to 20 % or 20 to 40% whenever we see another host can give a lower bucket score the DRS considers moving the VM.

the vm DRS score is calculated using a lot of matrices. example CPU ready time, capacity, headroom of ESXi host. network utilization.

Finally, it also checks the migration cost of the VM. ie how much network resource is going to be used in doing this migration if its going to expensive or performance constrains DRS migration will not take place.

To learn more about new features with vSphere 7 and vCenter 7 click on the links below:

VMware Cloud Foundation 4

vCenter Server Profiles

Content Library with version control

New and improved DRS 2.0

vSphere 7 and vSGX Intel Software Guard Extension

vCenter Server Upgrade Planner

Improved vMotion

Agenda

What is VMware Memory Management?

Benefits of Memory Management ?

Disadvantages of over-committing host memory?

Different types

Transparent Page Sharing (TPS)

Ballooning

Memory compression

Swapping

Transparent Page Sharing (TPS): Transparent Page sharing shares memory pages on the same or across multiple VMs running on the same host.

Ballooning: Ballooning: can be used when we have VMware Tools running Can cause performance increase or decrease as the Guest VM has to use its own memory technique swapping etc.

Memory compression: Host compress the memory but this has an impact as the compressed memory takes longer time to get access read/ write.

Swapping: Host swapping memory this is used as a last resort as can cause serious performance issues. The memory is written to the physical disk

Here is a quick video on my with a detail explanation on the above tops.

References: VMware vSphere 5 Memory Management and Monitoring diagram (2017642) https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2017642https://vmguru.com/wp-content/uploads…https://vmguru.com/2013/04/vsphere-5-…https://blog.heroix.com/blog/vmware-m…

Reach me out on twitter @ibrahimquraishi

My blog www.ibrahimquraishi.com

Questions of the day?

Which memory management technique needs VMTools ( VMware tools ) Leave a comment with your response.

I have been asked this question time and time again on how to setup a lab for vSphere to start learning VMware.

In this post today I am going to walk you through how I have created an amazing lab just using simple commodity hardware, which is easy to find and cheap to run with the electricity bills. Especially if you are planning to run it 24/7 as I do.

Hardware – Dell Optiplex 7010

I have purposely used Dell Optiplex 7010 as it is easy and cheap to buy.

Configuring / Billing of Material (BOM)

CPU Intel i7

Memory – 32GB

2TB HDD

CD/DVD

So as you can see this is a simple Dell desktop which you can buy, I have bought this from eBay for £350, The most important thing to remember is the memory, so the more the merrier. In my case, I have messaged the eBay seller and found out the maximum memory that is supported for this desktop which is 32GB and I have got 8 GB X 4 Memory Modules.

Although this looks like a good option sadly, there is no more room for an upgrade of memory as this is the maximum the motherboard supports.

I bought this kit back in Feb 2019, it fit the requirement I had for my basic home lab with vSphere 6.7

Installing ESXi

Once you get the server ready, Install ESX 6.7 you will need to register on https://www.vmware.com and download the ESX 6.7 Update 3 ISO first.

1. register with my VMware portal httpss://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/registration
2. once register login with the credentials

• Once you log-in you will find the downloads

4. click on Trial and Free products.

you will then find vSphere for Download free Trial

You can also have a go at the VMware Hands-on Lab ( HOL) they are very good too.

so once we click on the download link we will get 60 days evaluation for vSpehre 6.7 or any VMware products for that matter. as you can see my Evaluation edition time is compleated

This should let you download your software if you have registered a new MyVMware account.

You can also check out the old products that y you can click on View My Evaluation

Then you will need to burn the ISO to CD or DVD disk to install the ESX hypervisor on the server.

Please follow the blog given below to complete the ESX installation process. although this was done for ESX 6.7 Update 2 the process is the same for Update 3 too.

https://agileops.co.uk/2019/05/02/installing-vsphere-6-7-update-2/

Finally, at the end of the installation, you will find your brand new Hypervisor ready for action. you might need to check if the VT is enabled in the Bios to start nested esx host if that’s what you are planning to do like I have done in my lab.

You can find the full process of Installing the ESX on my YouTube channel where I teach VMware to beginners VMware Tutorial for Beginners | Session 3: installing vSphere 6.7

Then you can start installing the vCetner Server, you can go back to the MyVMware website and download the ISO.

Sometimes you see the error message given below:

You either are not entitled or do not have permissions to download this product.
Check with your My VMware Super User, Procurement Contact or Administrator.

If you recently purchased this product through VMware Store or through a third-party, try downloading later.

just click on Trail Download and you should be able to download the ISO

httpss://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI670&productId=742&rPId=24857

You can follow my blog Installing VMware vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2

How does my lab look like, well that’s a good subject? please check the screenshot below:

I have the Physical dell Optiplex server which I have highlighted in red. as as you can see I am chewing almost all the memory on the server currently.

I have two VM running nested esx which are highlighted in the demo cluster running around 7 VM’s

I have the vCetner server and vROPS instance running directory on the dell server.

How can I forget I have used FreeNAS for shared storage which is provisioned using ISCSI software initiators. you will find a full process of how to provide shared storage on the YouTube chanal in two parts.

Part1:

Part2:

YouTube Videos

Hi All, I just decided to collect all the Sessions on one blog post so that it’s easy for you to go through. We have almost done 40 % of the content which I wanted to deliver. So if you have been following my blog and YouTube Channel well done.

I also would like to thank my subscribers I get motivated by seeing the numbers grow

Also, I would like to remind those who have not subscribed please do so. I publish 2 videos every week and be sure to hit the notification bell so you don’t miss on new content.

So let’s get started shall we, VMware have announced on 5th Feb 2019 that they are no longer going to have a re-certification requirement which was previously for 2 years. more info on this can be found on my previous post.

Certification Path

1. VMware Tutorial for Beginners

2. VMware Tutorial for Beginners what is Virtualization?

Hey All in this video I will take you through some basics of virtualization, starting from some introduction to types of hypervisors.

What is #Virtualization?

Overview #Type1 and# Type2 Type1 #Bare Metal Virtualization

installing the virtualization software VMM on a physical server ie. ESXi

Type 2 #Hosted Virtualization ( installing Virtualization emulator on the host OS like Windows 7, WIndows 10 eg. VMware player, VMware work station, Oracle virtual box.

Further, we can classify the virtualization in three important categories

3. VMware Tutorial for Beginners, what is cloud?

Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisor

Runs directly on the bare metal ( No host OS) Direct access to CPU and Memory resources

We get Better performance, Server consolidation

Servers are used more efficiently value for money Saves on carbon footprint electricity and AC cooling cost. and Easy to manage.

Different types of Service Model

IaaS, PaaS and SaaS

Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service and Software as a Service

Examples Infrastructure as a Service Google cloud, Amazon Web Services, Azure, Rack Space.

Platform as a Service Google app engine, bring your data and application Software as a Service Email, Dropbox, Skype, Whatsapp, Google apps Microsoft Office 365.

4. VMware Tutorial for Beginners | Session 3: installing vSphere 6.7

Session 3 How to connect ESXi to vCenter

1. Download the vSphere Hypervisor from www.vmware.com

2. For the purpose of Demo Install nested ESX ( on Virtual Machine) 3. Configure IPaddress and basic Networks

4. How to connect to the ESX server using a web-client How to add vSphere ESX server to a vCenter

5. VMware tutorial beginners Session 4 vCenter Server

6. VMware tutorial beginners Session 4 vCenter Server Installation

In this video we are going to go through the fundamentals of vCenter Server understand the concept of what is PSC its function. Then we are going to download and install the vCenter Server.

Once successfully deployed, we will connect to it and add a ESXi Host.

Agenda:

PSC ( Platform Services Controler) vCenter with embeded PSC vCetner with external PSC Session

Download vCenter from www.vmware.com Session 4 Learn how to install VMware vCenter Server 6.7 PSC (Platform Services controller) was introduced with vCenter 6.0

The Platform Services controller is responsible for the following infrastructure security functions vCenter Single Sign-On, licensing, Certificate management, etc.

Deployment Type Tiny (up to 10 hosts, 100 VMs) – 2 CPUs, 10 GB RAM. Small (up to 100 hosts, 1000 VMs) – 4 CPUs, 16 GB RAM. Medium (up to 400 hosts, 4000 VMs) – 8 CPUs, 24 GB RAM. Large (up to 1000 hosts, 10,000 VMs) – 16 CPUs, 32 GB RAM. X-Large (up to 2000 hosts, 35,000 VMs) – 24 CPUs, 48 GB RAM – new to v6.5. Installation options Install – for a new fresh installation Upgrade – (6.0 or 6.5 to 6.7) Migrate – (Windows) Restore – corrupt vCenter

7. VMware Tutorial for Beginners Session 5 Create a Virtual Machine

8. VMware Tutorial for Beginners | Session 6: Deploying an OVF/OVA UCS Manager Platform Emulator

9. VMware Tutorial for Beginners | Session 7: Introducing the HTML 5 Client

10. VMware Tutorial Beginners | Session 8 : What is a Template ?

11. VMware Tutorial Beginners | Session 9 : What is a Clone

12. VMware Tutorial for Beginners | Session 10 Working with VMware Snapshots demo Linux password reset

13. VMware tutorial beginners Session 11 VMware Settings vCPU Memory and Disk

14. VMware Tutorial Beginners | Session 12 VMware Memory Management

15. VMware Tutorial Beginners  | Session 13 VMware Tools Installation

In this session, we are going to discuss VMware Tools. What is Vmware Tools (VMTools) Benefits of VMTools How to check if we are running the up to date version

How to Install VMTools

What is VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machine’s guest operating system and improves management of the virtual machine.

You can use the Windows Easy Install Linux Easy Install feature to install

Upcoming Sessions:

I am planning to deliver another 16 sessions that will cover the following content

Advance features of Hot Add CPU and Hot plug Memory.

Datastore and Shared Storage

VMFS 5 and VMFS 6 ( No migration tool to upgrade)

Advance Troubleshooting Performance monitoring CPU, RAM, Network and disk, also look at Task, Alerts, Events.

Networking Standard vSwitch

Networking Distributed vSwitch

Traffic – Management Traffic, vMotion and Fault-Tolerant, VM-Traffic(production).

Migration using vMotion (Compute) and Storage vMotion (storage) (live demo)

Cluster Configuration, High Availability (HA), Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), EVC Mode (live demo)

VMware Security and Compliance.

VMware Update Manager -Maintenance Patching the ESX host.

VMDS –(VMware Download server for downloading patches via proxy for restricted environments with firewall)

Introduction to Advance troubleshooting using vROPs

Getting started with PowerCLI

Create My learn account

Resources VMware HOL

This will help beginners to understand the concept of VMware Technology and most importantly the terminology. Quite a few of the people who are interested are from different backgrounds and in entry-level, IT positions so they are keen to learn and ask me a question. As of today, I have got nearly 350 subscribers on my YouTube Channel. httpss://www.youtube.com/user/miquraishi

Hi All,

This is my second post for the video series VMware tutorial for beginners, this is a part of a YouTube series which you will find below:

In this post I am going to take you through installing vCenter server 6.7 step by step.

Login to the VMware website and download the vCenter Server

Link httpss://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VC670&productId=742&rPId=22641

The vCenter server is deployed in 2 stages.

Stage 1

Stage 1 is deploying the VCSA appliance VM on the ESXi host or the vCetner you may have selected.

Stage 2 is the configuration part where you configure the ntp, SSO details and the sso password.

Open the folder vcsa-ui-installer

Open the win32 as i am using a Windows 10 laptop for deploying this vCetner.

Scroll to the bottom you will find installer.exe double click and launch the installation for vcsa

you will find 4 options for fresh installation select install

Accept the terms of the licence and click Next

Click Next

Give the IPaddress for the vCenter root password and then Click Next

Press Yes

This is the vm ( virtual machine ) name vcenter

for home lab or test or development select tiny deployment

select the datastore to deploy the vcsa.

give the ip-address, subnet mask, gateway and dns details

Confirm all the information is correct and click Finish.

Stage 2

Once the instillation of Stage 1 is complete click Continue to start the Stage 2.

Select the Stage 2 and click Next

My ESXi has ntp configured so i select the first option.

From the drop down select Enable for SSH Access to enable.

create a single sign on domain and select the SSO password

if we have an existing sso domain this is the time we integrate this new vcenter to the existing sso.( you will need to remember the sso password to add it )

Click Next

Go through the summary page and click Finish.

Once the Installation is compleate connect to the vCenter by typing the IPaddress in the web browser in my case 192.168.1.90

select Web client Flex

enter the login details

administrator@vsphere.local

password which was given at the time of installation.

We have now connected to the new vCenter Server.

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Hi All,

Today I will take you thought the troubleshooting for vMotion using CLI, If you have not done network troubleshooting on esx host you will find some really good esxi commands on this post. And if you are using a converged infrastructure its important to understand end to end connectivity especially if you have different vlans for each service like vMotion FT, Management traffic and VM-Traffic.

I build a brand new Data Center and after configuring the dv switch I decided to test the vMotion first and this is the error I saw on the first attempt the vm was stuck at 14 % and after a while it gave the below error message.

as shown below:

Migrate virtual machine error message

If you read the above error message you will find the IP’s of the host which I am migrating from and to.

for example lets consider the below two host this troubleshooting is done on esx-02. vmnic2 is FT vmnic3 is vMotion so I am comparing the mac address of booth the host on the ucs service profile to compare tht the vnic template has the right mac address and if they are connected to the right vlan.

esx-01

vmnic2 0000:08:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:0d 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic3 0000:09:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:0c 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC

 esx-02

vmnic2 0000:08:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:19 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC

vmnic3 0000:09:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:18 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC

1. check the mac address on ucs and on the esx host for the vmnic2 ( ft) vmnic3 (vmotion)
2. check the mtu it should be 9000 although this shuld not affect but I have changed them from 1500 mtu to 9000 mtu.
3.  check the nics with mac address
   esxcfg-nics -l
4.  check the vmkernal nics
   esxcfg-vmknic -l
5.  ping from the vnic using
   # vmkping -I vmk2 192.168.242.1 this is using vmk2 interface which is for vmotion
   you will notice its failing initially because the uplink on the dv switch was first given to both the ft and vmotion nics
   I then moved the dvuplink_1 to unused as I and it was my mistake which is why it was not working agian.
6.  vmkping -I vmk2 192.168.242.1 the ping test failed again
   then I moved the dvuplink_1 in active and moved dvuplink_2 to unused and the result is

The time and date of this login have been sent to the system logs.

VMware offers supported, powerful system administration tools. Please
see www.vmware.com/go/sysadmintools for details.

The ESXi Shell can be disabled by an administrative user. See the
vSphere Security documentation for more information.
~ # esxcfg-nics
esxcfg-nics <options> [nic]
-s|–speed <speed> Set the speed of this NIC to one of 10/100/1000/10000.
Requires a NIC parameter.
-d|–duplex <duplex> Set the duplex of this NIC to one of ‘full’ or ‘half’.
Requires a NIC parameter.
-a|–auto Set speed and duplexity automatically. Requires a NIC parameter.
-l|–list Print the list of NICs and their settings.
-r|–restore Restore the nics configured speed/duplex settings (INTERNAL ONLY)
-h|–help Display this message.

~ # esxcfg-nics -l
Name PCI Driver Link Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
vmnic0 0000:06:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:a3:01:14 1500 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic1 0000:07:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:1a 1500 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic10 0000:10:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:a3:01:10 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic11 0000:11:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:11 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic12 0000:12:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:a3:01:0f 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic13 0000:13:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:10 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic14 0000:14:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:a3:01:0c 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic15 0000:15:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:0f 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic2 0000:08:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:19 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic3 0000:09:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:18 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic4 0000:0a:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:a3:01:13 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic5 0000:0b:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:17 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic6 0000:0c:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:a3:01:12 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic7 0000:0d:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:16 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic8 0000:0e:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:a3:01:11 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
vmnic9 0000:0f:00.00 enic Up 20000Mbps Full xx:xx:xx:b3:01:15 9000 Cisco Systems Inc Cisco VIC Ethernet NIC
~ # esxcfg-vmknic -l
Interface Port Group/DVPort IP Family IP Address Netmask Broadcast MAC Address MTU TSO MSS Enabled Type
vmk0 Management Network IPv4 192.168.248.2 255.255.254.0 192.168.249.255 xx:xx:xx:a3:01:14 1500 65535 true STATIC
vmk1 1 IPv4 192.168.240.2 255.255.254.0 192.168.241.255 xx:xx:xx:68:7c:e3 9000 65535 true STATIC
vmk3 1 IPv4 192.168.237.2 255.255.255.0 192.168.237.255 xx:xx:xx:67:0d:34 1500 65535 true STATIC
vmk4 1 IPv4 192.168.245.2 255.255.255.0 192.168.245.255 xx:xx:xx:68:07:a0 1500 65535 true STATIC
vmk5 1 IPv4 192.168.244.2 255.255.255.0 192.168.244.255 xx:xx:xx:62:60:66 1500 65535 true STATIC
vmk6 129 IPv4 192.168.245.102 255.255.255.0 192.168.245.255 xx:xx:xx:64:9c:a8 1500 65535 true STATIC
vmk7 129 IPv4 192.168.244.102 255.255.255.0 192.168.244.255 xx:xx:xx:65:b6:41 1500 65535 true STATIC
vmk2 129 IPv4 192.168.242.2 255.255.254.0 192.168.243.255 xx:xx:xx:65:ff:87 9000 65535 true STATIC

~ # vmkping -I vmk2 192.168.242.1 –  [ping to the esx-01 failed]
PING 192.168.242.1 (192.168.242.1): 56 data bytes

— 192.168.242.1 ping statistics —
3 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss
~ # vmkping -I vmk2 192.168.242.2   – [ this is the same host I am troubleshooting so its ping is ok.]
PING 192.168.242.2 (192.168.242.2): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.242.2: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.081 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.242.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.027 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.242.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.055 ms

— 192.168.242.2 ping statistics —
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.027/0.054/0.081 ms
~ #
~ # vmkping -I vmk1 192.168.242.2 [  vmk1 is the vmkernal port of FaultTolarant so it will not ping as its on a different subnet and vlan]
PING 192.168.242.2 (192.168.242.2): 56 data bytes

— 192.168.242.2 ping statistics —
2 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

~ # vmkping -I vmk1 192.168.240.2
PING 192.168.240.2 (192.168.240.2): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.240.2: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.084 ms

— 192.168.240.2 ping statistics —
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.039/0.062/0.084 ms
~ # vmkping -I vmk1 192.168.240.1
PING 192.168.240.1 (192.168.240.1): 56 data bytes

— 192.168.240.1 ping statistics —
2 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

Now it is clear that the MAC and NIC are presented correct from UCS service profile and we have verified the MAC address and pinging from the vmkernal ports proofs that its is still not working.

I have check that they vnic template is connected to the right vlan on ucs. So next thing I have done is check the dvport group and I found that I had two uplinks on active which was wrong as one uplink is only for FT which has vlan 20and the other uplink is for vMotion which is on 21 vlan.

So, I have moved the dvuplink2 to unused as its for FT. on the dvport group which is for vMotion as shown below:

— 192.168.242.2 ping statistics —

3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.040/0.061/0.088 ms
~ # vmkping -I vmk2 192.168.242.1
PING 192.168.242.1 (192.168.242.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.242.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.428 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.242.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.197 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.242.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.219 ms

— 192.168.242.1 ping statistics —

3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.197/0.281/0.428 ms