Computer Networks

The esxcfg- Commands

esxcfg-init
Should not be run manually!

esxcfg-nas
The esxcfg-nas command is used to list, mount and dismount NFS exports for the VMkernel. In the first example we list the NFS datastores which the VMkernel has mounted.

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-nas -l
NFS01 is /NFS from 100.100.100.253 mounted

In the next example, we add a new VMkernel mount to a remote NFS server. This time we are connecting to the NFS server at IP address 100.100.100.253 and the name of the exported directory is "/Test". We are labelled this NFS mount "NFS02".

[root@esx1host etc]# esxcfg-nas -a -o 100.100.100.253 -s /Test NFS02
Connecting to NAS volume: NFS02
NFS02 created and connected.

Remember that to create a connection to an NFS datastore, the VMkernel needs to have an IP address, as it is the NFS client. We give the VMkernel an IP address by creating a VMkernel port on a virtual Ethernet switch. We can do this at the command line using the command esxcfg-vmknic

The command line options for esx are:

esxcfg-nas <options> [<label>]
-a|--add               Add a new NAS filesystem to /vmfs volumes. Requires --host and --share options.
-o|--host <host>       Set the host name or ip address for a NAS mount.
-s|--share <share>     Set the name of the NAS share on the remote system.
-d|--delete            Unmount and delete a filesystem.
-l|--list              List the currently mounted NAS file systems.
-r|--restore           Restore all NAS mounts from the configuration file. (FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY).
-h|--help              Show this message.

esxcfg-route

If we add an IP address to the VMkernel by adding a VMkernel port, then we can fully configure that IP stack by also assigning a default gateway. We can view (no parameters) and set (1st parameter) the VMkernel IP default gateway with the esxcfg-route command as shown here.

[root@esx1host etc]# esxcfg-route
VMkernel default gateway is 100.100.100.254

[root@esx1host etc]# esxcfg-route 100.100.100.1
VMkernel default gateway set to 100.100.100.1

esxcfg-vmknic

Used to view and set configure the VMkernel ports on virtual Ethernet switches. A VMkernel port is a special type of port group on a virtual Ethernet switch which is used to assign an IP address to the VMkernel. The VMkernel only needs an IP address for VMotion, software-initiated iSCSI or NFS access.

If you need to create a VMkernel port at the command line, then you need to create a port group first and then enable it as a VMkernel port. This tool does not allow you to enable the VMkernel port for VMotion, you must either use vimsh or the VI client for that.

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch -A VMotion vSwitch0
[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 100.100.100.121 -n 255.255.255.0 VMotion

The above commands would result in an additional connection to the virtual Ethernet switch, specifically a VMkernel port. The esxcfg-vmknic command has assigned the VMkernel an IP address & the portgroup called VMotion is now explicitly VMkernel port.

In the following example, we list the VMkernel ports, then use esxcfg-vmknic to delete one of them and then list them again.

[root@esx1host etc]# esxcfg-vmknic -l

Port Group          IP Address      Netmask         Broadcast       MAC Address       MTU     Enabled
NFS access          100.100.100.21 255.255.255.0   100.100.100.255 00:50:56:62:ca:f6 1514    true
VMotion             100.100.100.121 255.255.255.0   100.100.100.255 00:50:56:6d:7c:7d 1514    true

[root@esx1host etc]# esxcfg-vmknic -d VMotion
[root@esx1host etc]# esxcfg-vmknic -l

Port Group IP Address Netmask Broadcast MAC Address MTU Enabled
NFS access 100.100.100.21 255.255.255.0 100.100.100.255 00:50:56:62:ca:f6 1514 true

The command line options are:

esxcfg-vmknic <options> [[<portgroup>]]
-a|--add                  Add a VMkernel NIC to the system, requires IP parameters and portgroup name.
-d|--del                  Delete VMkernel NIC on given portgroup.
-e|--enable               Enable the given NIC if disabled.
-D|--disable              Disable the given NIC if enabled.
-l|--list                 List VMkernel NICs.
-i|--ip <X.X.X.X>         The IP address for this VMkernel NIC. Setting an IP address requires that the
                          --netmask option be given in same command.
-n|--netmask <X.X.X.X>    The IP netmask for this VMkernel NIC. Setting the IP netmask requires that the --ip
                          option be given in the same command.
-r|--restore              Restore VMkernel TCP/IP interfaces from Configuration file (FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY).
-h|--help Show this message.

esxcfg-dumppart

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 -l VM Kernel Name Console Name Is Active Is Configured vmhba0:0:0:7 /dev/cciss/c0d0p7 yes yes

Remember that the dump partition does not show up when you run the vdf utility. However it is visible if you run fdisk. In the following example, we are running fdisk to view the partitions. We can see the dump partition as c0d0p7, i.e. partition #7. Notice the Id of that partition is "fc", the custom partition type for VMkernel dump partitions.

# fdisk /dev/cciss/c0d0

Disk /dev/cciss/c0d0: 36.3 GB, 36385505280 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 34699 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/cciss/c0d0p1 * 1 100 102384 83 Linux /dev/cciss/c0d0p2 101 5100 5120000 83 Linux /dev/cciss/c0d0p3 5101 7100 2048000 83 Linux /dev/cciss/c0d0p4 7101 34699 28261376 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/cciss/c0d0p5 7101 7644 557040 82 Linux swap /dev/cciss/c0d0p6 7645 34599 27601904 fb Unknown /dev/cciss/c0d0p7 34600 34699 102384 fc Unknown
The command line options are:
esxcfg-dumppart <options> [<partition>]
-l|--list            List the partitions available for Dump Partitions. WARNING: This will scan all LUNs on the system.
-t|--get-active      Get the active Dump Partition for this system, returns the internal name of the partition
                     vmhbaX:X:X:X) or 'none'.
-c|--get-config      Get the configured Dump Partition for this system, returns the internal name of the partition
                     vmhbaX:X:X:X) or 'none'.
-s|--set             Set the Dump Partition for this system and activate it, either vmhbaX:X:X:X or 'none' to
                     deactivate the active dump partition.
-f|--find            Find usable Dump partitions and list in order of preference.
-S|--smart-activate Activate the configured dump partition or find the first appropriate partition and use it(same
                     order as -f).
-a|--activate        Activate the configured dump partition.
-d|--deactivate      Deactivate the active dump partition.
-h|--help            Show this message.

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The esxcfg- Commands

esxcfg-upgrade

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.

esxcfg-vswitch
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 defined on the host.

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch -l

If 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 this command is initially a little intimidating. It is best to keep in mind the network topology:

Service Console IP Interface (vswif0) ---- connected to ----> Service Console Port on vSwitch ----- up-linked to ----> vmnic

Where a vmnic is a physical Ethernet adapter.

In following screenshot taken from the VI Client, we can see this ESX host has 2 connections to vSwitch0, the service console connection a VMkernel port connection.

If we wish to view the same information at the service console command line, we would use the esxcfg-vswitch command with the "-l" switch to list the defined virtual switches.

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch -l

Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports Uplinks
vSwitch0 32 4 32 vmnic0

PortGroup Name      Internal ID    VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
Service Console     portgroup0     0        1           vmnic0
  NFS access          portgroup1    0        1           vmnic0

If we wanted to add another virtual Ethernet switch, we would use esxcfg-vswitch command with the "-a" switch. Note that the -a is specified in lowercase. Take care to ensure you have specified lowercase because uppercase A performs a different function with this command. So, lets add a new virtual switch to our ESX host called vSwitch1 and then list the switches to check our command has worked ok.

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch1
[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch -l

Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports Uplinks
vSwitch0 32 4 32 vmnic0

PortGroup Name      Internal ID    VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
Service Console     portgroup0     0        1           vmnic0
  NFS access          portgroup1    0        1           vmnic0

Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports Uplinks
vSwitch1 64 0 64

PortGroup Name Internal ID VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks

Notice that the number of ports on the virtual switch is 64 on the newly created switch. The original virtual switch has only 32. This difference arises between creating the switch in the VI Client or the command line. Anyway, if you are like me and you can never remember which case of the letter "a" to use when adding a virtual switch, then use the esxcfg-vswitch command with the --add switch when creating a new switch like this:

esxcfg-vswitch --add vSwitch2

which I think is a little clearer to understand.

Now if we want to add a portgroup to the new virtual switch we have created, we can use the esxcfg-vswitch -A command. It does not matter whether you are creating a service console port, a VM port group or a VMkernel port when creating a port group; the way we create the connection to the virtual switch always starts out the same in the command line. Only after creating the port group do we then specify if it is to be anything other than a VM port group. In the following commands, we add a new portgroup called "Production" on the virtual switch vSwitch1.

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch -A "Production" vSwitch1
[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch -l

Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports Uplinks
vSwitch0 32 4 32 vmnic0

PortGroup Name      Internal ID    VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
Service Console     portgroup0     0        1           vmnic0
  NFS access          portgroup1    0        1           vmnic0

Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports Uplinks
vSwitch1 64 0 64

PortGroup Name Internal ID VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
Production portgroup2 0 0

Alternatively you could use the following command to add a port group to a virtual switch.

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch --add-pg="Production" vSwitch1

This alternative switch of using --ad-pg I think is clearer for understanding what the command is doing. The --add-pg option can clearly be seen to add a portgroup to a virtual switch, and again is simpler to understand than just "-A". The portgroup name in our example is called "Production", but it can be what you want. We recommend adoption of a standard across all your virtual infrastructure. I have seen somnts align their portgroup names with the IP subnets, so you could have a portgroup called something like "192.168.1.0 subnet".

Although we have now created a new virtual switch and have created a VM port group on it, the virtual switch itself does not have any uplinks. Remember that when we bind a physical network adapter to a virtual switch we are uplinking a vmnic to the switch and the switch then "owns" that adapter, i.e. it is not available to be used by any other virtual switches. We perform the uplink by using the esxcfg-vswitch command with the -L switch for link.

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 vSwitch1

So in one simple command we have linked the physical network adapter vmnic1 to our new virtual ethernet switch vSwitch1. If we then realised we had used the wrong physical adapter, we can just as easily unlink with -U. In the next example, we swap the uplinked vmnic1 for an alternative adapter vmnic2

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic1 vSwitch1
[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic2 vSwitch1

This changing of vmnic bound to a virtual switch is often required post-installation, as we may select the wrong physical adapter to use for the service console during the install and need to correct our configuration before we can connect to our host with VI client!

esxcfg-auth

Configures the service console authentication options including NIS, LDAP, Kerberos and Active Directory.

esxcfg-info

Produces an enormous amount of information about the ESX host. You really need to pipe this to a file for closer examination!

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-info >esxinfo.txt

esxcfg-mpath

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 vmhba1:0:6 /dev/sda (9216MB) has 1 paths and policy of Most Recently Used
FC 10:1.0 210000e08b846a72<->5006016930221397 vmhba1:0:6 On active preferred

Disk vmhba1:0:21 /dev/sdb (10240MB) has 1 paths and policy of Most Recently Used
FC 10:1.0 210000e08b846a72<->5006016930221397 vmhba1:0:21 On active preferred

esxcfg-resgrp

Used to manage the new ESX feature called resource groups. This command can add, remove or modify existing resource groups.

esxcfg-hbadevs

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-vmhbadevs
vmhba0:0:0    /dev/sda
vmhba0:0:1    /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 listed. This is the VMFS volume signature assigned by the new logical volume manager (LVM).

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-vmhbadevs -m
vmhba0:0:0:1 /dev/sda1 45407607-fbc43ced-94cb-00145e231ce3
vmhba0:0:2:1 /dev/sdc1 455b08a8-8af7fee3-daa9-00145e231e35
vmhba2:0:0:3 /dev/sde3 4559c75f-831d8f3e-bc81-00145e231e35

You can view these volumes in the directory /vmfs/volumes/

esxcfg-boot

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 boot
272 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 linux
cciss.o scsi
tg3.o nic
qla2300_7xx.o fc

This is also used if you making modifications to VMkernel device drivers defaults. For example, if you were modifying the queue depth for a fibre HBA, you would likely be using esxcfg-module. Then to rebuild the boot image you would enter

[root@esx1host root]# esxcfg-boot -m

After which, you would do a reboot to test the update to the boot image had worked.

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Computer Networks

الجمعة، 22 مايو 2009

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