There is not normally a command that a virtual infrastructure administrator should need. The tool is automatically used when you start an ESX server in troubleshooting mode; i.e. when you start only the service console Linux kernel and don’t start the VMkernel.When you are working in the service console while the VMkernel is loaded, the service console’s network interface is not called eth0, but is called vswif0 instead. This is because the service console network interface is provided...
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esxcfg-dumppart
Posted by John Sorensen on February 2nd, 2010
Used to configure the VMkernel crash dump partition. The old ESX 2.x utility for this function (vmkdump) is still present on an ESX 3 server, but appears just to be for extracting dump files.So far, we have only used this utility to interrogate ESX hosts to determine where the dump partition has been created. Here is an example of viewing the dump partition.# esxcfg-dumppart -lVM Kernel Name Console Name Is Active Is Configured
vmhba0:0:0:7 /dev/cciss/c0d0p7 yes yes
Remember...
esxcfg-nics
Posted by John Sorensen on February 2nd, 2010
This tool can be used to view and configure the speed and duplex settings of the physical network cards in the ESX Server. This tool can replace the mii-tool and modules.conf for network card management.In the following example, we run the list option to view all physical NICs and their properties.[root@esx1host etc]# esxcfg-nics -l
Name PCI Driver Link Speed Duplex Description
vmnic2 01:01.00 tg3 Up 1000Mbps Full Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5703 Gigabit Ethernet
vmnic0 01:02.00...
esxcfg-hbadevs
Posted by John Sorensen on February 2nd, 2010
The esxcfg-vmhbadevs command is used to list the equivalent Linux device names for the visible disk devices that the VMkernel references using vmhba notation.[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vmhbadevsvmhba0:0:0 /dev/sdavmhba0:0:1 /dev/sdb
vmhba0:0:2 /dev/sdc
vmhba0:0:3 /dev/sdd
vmhba2:0:0 /dev/sde
vmhba2:1:0 /dev/sdf
If we use this command with the -m switch, then we only list the LUNs which contain VMFS partitions. Alongside the Linux device name, a long unique hexadecimal value is...
esxcfg-boot
Posted by John Sorensen on February 2nd, 2010
Used to configure the GRUB options presented at boot time. One thing to note is that the new esxcfg commands will not run if you boot just into Linux. If you just want to query the boot settings, you can use the -q switch but this must be qualified with the keyword boot or vmkmod.[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-boot -q boot272 2:;7:;10:; UUID=847199e4-d3c7-11da-8ef8-930e3d734c03 /vmlinuz-2.4.21-37.0.2.ELvmnix /initrd-2.4.21-37.0.2.ELvmnix.img
[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-boot -q vmkmod
vmkapimod vmkapimod
vmklinux...
esxcfg-mpath
Posted by John Sorensen on February 2nd, 2010
Manages storage multi-pathing just as the vmkmultipath utility did in previous versions of ESX Server. In the example below we are using the -l switch to list the storage and paths.[root@esx1host tools-isoimages]# esxcfg-mpath -l Disk vmhba0:0:0 /dev/cciss/c0d0 (69459MB) has 1 paths and policy of Fixed
Local 2:1.0 vmhba0:0:0 On active preferred
Disk vmhba1:0:0 (0MB) has 1 paths and policy of Most Recently Used
FC 10:1.0 210000e08b846a72<->5006016930221397 vmhba1:0:0 On active preferred
Disk...
esxcfg-info
Posted by John Sorensen on February 2nd, 2010
Produces an enormous amount of information about the state ESX host, often this tool is the one tool that can tell you what is really going on and not what is in some configuration file. If you run this command with no parameters, then you really need to pipe this to a file for closer examination! Over time, less information will be available in the proc nodes (the /proc/vmware directory structure), so the sooner we can get used to examining the current running configuration of ESX using this command,...
esxcfg-auth
Posted by John Sorensen on February 2nd, 2010
Configures the service console user authentication options including NIS, LDAP, Kerberos and Active Directory. In the following command, we are configuring authentication for the Active Directory domain called taupoconsulting.com[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-auth –enablead –addomain=taupoconsulting.com –adddc=dc1.taupoconsulting.comYou can also use this tool to set a password policy for service console user accounts.[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-auth –maxpassdays=90 –minpassdays=30...
esxcfg-vswitch
Posted by John Sorensen on February 2nd, 2010
This command is one of the most useful commands in the service console. This command allows you to list, add, modify or delete virtual Ethernet switches on an ESX host. The simplest option with this command is the -l option to list the virtual switches and portgroups defined on the host.[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch -lIf you are having problems with your ESX server after an in-place upgrade, this tool is invaluable in resolving the problems with service console networking. The output of...
esxcfg-upgrade
Posted by John Sorensen on February 2nd, 2010
esxcfg-upgrade -h –help-g –convert-grub-f –convert-fstab
-r –upgrade-pre-vmkernel
-o –upgrade-post-vmkernel
The -g option may only be used with the -r option.
