Getting the vNIC to pNIC mappings the same across hosts

[Kahonu84]

Aloha - I have four hosts with 2 onboard NICs, 2 dual port NICs and 1 quad port NIC. I am trying to get the pNIC to vNIC correlations to match up on each of the four hosts with negative success. I tried working with the esx.conf and I just disconnected my new (nothing running on it yet) host. Can anyone offer a hint or three??

Mahalo, Bill

[Mark_Bradley]

Hi,

What model server are you installing the cards in? As this will effect the VMNIC number... perhaps try connecting the cable and then seeing which NIC is active... this is probably the easiest and simplest way to associate the physical NIC to which vmnic number...

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[Texiwill]

Hello,

If the servers are identical and the pNICs are identical and in the same slots on the machines, then you should be able to match everything up. The assignment is done via PCI number and existing vmnic #s

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

SearchVMware Blog: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/

Blue Gears Blogs - http://www.itworld.com/ and http://www.networkworld.com/community/haletky

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[Goodspd]

Hi.

As Mark already told the best way to map the nics is conecting them one by one and see on what nic you get link.

Regards,

Goodspeed

[Kahonu84]

The hosts are all different genereations of Dell PowerEdge 2950s. I have the vNIC to pNIC mappings laid out as suggested by playing musical cables. I've found that there are differences between hosts. What I am wanting to do is somehow alter the mappings thus forcing them all to be the same.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

You could edit the esx.conf file by hand to change the vmnic to PCI # that you get. Personally I would not bother, just label the back of the box and label the cables, and retain a diagram for each. If you add hardware or even change hardware it will change again. As long as the vSwitch portgroup labels are proper then everything will work.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

SearchVMware Blog: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/

Blue Gears Blogs - http://www.itworld.com/ and http://www.networkworld.com/community/haletky

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[Rockapot]

...for the most part I get all the hosts to have the same config which makes everything so much easier.., and doing cable mappings by testing the ports one by one is fine until you get to a blade chassis.., lots of fun, however in the end it is much easier as there is little cable pulling required..

Carl