ESXi 5.0 Management Network Interface Testing - Part 2

ESXi 5.0 Management Network Interface Testing - Part 2

Part 2 of the Management Network Interface Testing is about miscofig of ESXi Management Network Interface.

Misconfiguration happened very day and is part of life.  We learned from our mistake and gain experience from our mistake. 

In this part 2 of the test, three tests will be performed

• Duplicate IP address of current Management IP in the same network segment.
• Misconfig of Management Network IP.
• Delete of Management Network IP that is currently connecting to vCenter.

Test 1 - Duplicate IP address of current Management IP in the same network segment

Powered up a Windows 7 PC in another ESXi server.  Configured the Windows 7 PC with the same IP address as the testing ESXi Management IP.

Use Windows PC to ping vCenter. So that vCenter register the PC Mac Address.

Result of Test 1

After 2 min, vCenter loss control over the ESXi Server that is having the same IP with the Windows 7 PC.

Try to reconnect to the ESXi Server using the same IP.  Connection Error Message.

Click close and the following message pop up. 

Connected to vCenter again, the old ESXi IP is replaced with the new Management IP in vCenter.

 Test 2 - Misconfig of Management Network IP

Changed current Mangement Network IP VLAN to a different subnet (vlan 31).

Result of Test 2
vCenter lost connetivity to Management IP 1 with the following error message.

All other Network Management IP still working fine with SSH.

Recovery

Local Recovery

• Change to the correct IP address or VLAN in DUCI

Remote Recovery

• Remove ESXi host from vCenter.
• Add another Network Management IP know to vCenter. 
• Correct the misconfigurated mistake using vCenter.

Test 3 - Delete of Management Network IP that is currently connecting to vCenter

Current Networking Config.

Delete current ESXi Management IP that connect to vCenter.

After some error messages and clicking a few "ok", vCenter changed the Mangement IP of the ESXi Server to the next Management IP (from vmk0 to vmk1) within the same vSwitch.  Note that vmk0 is not there any more and the vMkernel Port Group has changed to "Virtual Machine Port Group".

Delete the ESXi IP again.  Same error message pop up and vCenter changed the Management Ip of the ESXi Server to the next Management IP in vSwitch1.  Note that it has now switch from vSwitch 0 vmk1 to vSwitch 1 vmk2.

Since the vSwitch has changed from vSwitch 0 to vSwitch1.  I look into the DCUI.  To my surprise the DCUI reflected the correct setting.

Delete the ESXi IP again. Same error message pop up and vCenter changed the Management IP of the ESXi Server to the next Management IP from vkm2 to vmk3.