Contents

  1. ESXi
    1. Get all VM power state and more
    2. Rescan storage
    3. identify DEVICE ERROR CODE
    4. Beacon Probing Deep-Dive
    5. iSCSI
    6. Grub boot ESXi6.5u2
    7. Build Customizer ISO
    8. Show Memory
  2. ESXi 5.0
    1. show arp
    2. show FRU
      1. Get the source from sourceforge & unpack it
      2. compile
      3. Scp the file and run tool from ESX host
      4. RUN IT
      5. References
    3. To power on a virtual machine from the command line:
  3. Troubleshooting
    1. ESXi network card driver
    2. scratch warning
    3. To monitor the VMDK snapshot
    4. Change DNS server
    5. Drop/Add vmnic from vDS
    6. Mount nfs from cli
    7. clean sensor
    8. find out ESXi host update date

ESXi

Get all VM power state and more

for vmid in `vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | awk '{ print $1 }' | grep -v Vmid`; do vim-cmd vmsvc/get.summary $vmid | egrep -i 'ipAddress|vim.VirtualMachine|powerState|
hostname =';done

Rescan storage

Initiate a storage rescan on the ESXi host through the vCenter Server GUI by right click on the ESXi host and select Storage > Rescan Storage) or through the command line by executing this command: 

vmkfstools -V

identify DEVICE ERROR CODE

https://www.virten.net/vmware/esxi-scsi-sense-code-decoder/?host=0&device=2&plugin=0&sensekey=5&asc=24&ascq=03&opcode=1a

Beacon Probing Deep-Dive

With 3 or more uplinks in a team, we can
pin point failures of a single uplink. 

With 2 uplinks in a team, we can detect
downstream link failure, but we don't know which one is good and which bad.

If you have three or more NICs, the mechanism is pretty straight-forward, but what happens if you have only two NICs?

In this situation, you cannot determinate if the problem is caused by the sending NIC ort he receiving NIC.

There is a fallback mechanism that will be used in this situation. Since ESXi does not know which of the NIC is affected (but it knows that one of the NIC is affected), it will simply starts to duplicate the frames on both NICs

iSCSI

esxcli iscsi adapter discovery sendtarget list

Grub boot ESXi6.5u2

set root=(hd0,gpt1)
search --set=root --file /efi/VMware/safebt64.efi
chainloader /efi/VMware/safebt64.efi

Build Customizer ISO

https://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer-ps.html#download 

ESXi-Customizer-PS-v2.6.0.ps1 -v65 -pkgDir c:\net-r816X -izip update-from-esxi6.5-6.5_update02.zip

Show Memory

smbiosDump | grep -A 12 -B 1  'Location: "DIMM' | egrep 'Location:|Bank:|Part Number:|Size:|Speed:|--'

ESXi 5.0

show arp

esxcli network ip neighbor list

show FRU

Get the source from sourceforge & unpack it

# curl "http://liquidtelecom.dl.sourceforge.net/project/ipmitool/ipmitool/1.8.15/ipmitool-1.8.15.tar.bz2" > ipmi.tar.gz
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  729k  100  729k    0     0   260k      0  0:00:02  0:00:02 --:--:--  260k

# bzip2 -dc ipmi.tar.gz | tar -xf -

compile

# cd ipmitool-1.8.15/
# ./configure CFLAGS=-m32 LDFLAGS=-static
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
.
.
.
#make

Scp the file and run tool from ESX host

# scp src/ipmitool root@192.168.39.12:~

RUN IT

esxcfg-scsidevs -l | egrep -i 'display name|vendor|size' | head -20

/vmfs/volumes/view-2/ipmitool fru | head

References

To power on a virtual machine from the command line:

    List the inventory ID of the virtual machine with the command:

    vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms |grep <vm name>

    Note: The first column of the output shows the vmid.

    Check the power state of the virtual machine with the command:

    vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate <vmid>

    Power-on the virtual machine with the command:

    vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on <vmid> 

for vmid in `vim-cmd /vmsvc/getallvms | tail -n+2 | awk '{print $1}' | grep -o '[0-9]*'`; do vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate $vmid; done

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1038043

Troubleshooting

ESXi network card driver

esxcli network nic get -n vmnic0

scratch warning

To monitor the VMDK snapshot

To monitor the VMDK snapshot and base disks which are currently being updated, run this watch command:

# watch -d 'ls -luth | grep -E "delta|flat|sesparse"'

# watch -d 'ls -luth | grep -E "delta|flat|sesparse"'

Change DNS server

ansible nsx -m raw -a 'esxcli network ip dns server remove --server=192.168.66.181'
ansible nsx -m raw -a 'esxcli network ip dns server add --server=192.168.66.181'

Drop/Add vmnic from vDS

Add or remove network cards (known as vmnics) to or from a vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) using these commands:

esxcfg-vswitch -Q vmnic -V dvPort_ID_of_vmnic dvSwitch # unlink/remove a vDS uplink

esxcfg-vswitch -P vmnic -V unused_dvPort_ID dvSwitch # add a vDS uplink

-Q|--del-dvp-uplink=uplink Delete an uplink from a DVPort on a DVSwitch.

-V|--dvp=dvport Specify a DVPort Id for the operation.

-P|--add-dvp-uplink=uplink Add an uplink to a DVPort on a DVSwitch. 

 vicfg-vswitch -Q vmnic0 --dvp 18 dvs-LAN-1 
 vicfg-vswitch -P vmnic1 --dvp 19 vs-LAN-0

Mount nfs from cli

[root@localhost:~] esxcfg-nas --add nfs --host=192.168.26.181 --share=/mnt/nfs 
Connecting to NAS volume: nfs
nfs created and connected.
[root@localhost:~] df -h
Filesystem   Size   Used Available Use% Mounted on
NFS        196.7G  50.1G    146.7G  25% /vmfs/volumes/nfs

[root@localhost:~] esxcfg-nas -d 181-nfs
NAS volume 181-nfs deleted.

clean sensor

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/74584

esxcli hardware ipmi sdr list | grep -i switch

find out ESXi host update date

for i in $(find . -iname "esxupdate.log" -o -iname "esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt" -type f); do grep -E -H -a "20497097|10.10.21" $i | head -1 | awk '{ print $1,$2,$3,$4,$5}' ; done 

./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.48-64755438/var/run/log/esxupdate.log:2024-09-23T04:09:07Z esxupdate: 21409970: imageprofile: INFO:
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.48-64755438/commands/esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt:vmk0 Management Network IPv4 10.10.21.97
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--10.12-54837774/var/run/log/esxupdate.log:2024-09-18T08:43:37Z esxupdate: 2101375: Transaction: DEBUG:
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--10.12-54837774/commands/esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt:vmk0 Management Network IPv4 10.10.21.78
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--10.14-74426764/var/run/log/esxupdate.log:2024-07-05T08:17:09Z esxupdate: 7872002: Transaction: DEBUG:
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--10.14-74426764/commands/esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt:vmk0 Management Network IPv4 10.10.21.61
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.58-57291123/var/run/log/esxupdate.log:2024-09-29T19:17:27Z esxupdate: 2101938: esxupdate: INFO:
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.58-57291123/commands/esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt:vmk0 Management Network IPv4 10.10.21.81
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.39-57646610/var/run/log/esxupdate.log:2024-09-12T05:46:23Z esxupdate: 2119344: imageprofile: INFO:
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.39-57646610/commands/esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt:vmk0 Management Network IPv4 10.10.21.74
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--10.05-72894411/commands/esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt:vmk0 Management Network IPv4 10.10.21.67
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.51-73524741/var/run/log/esxupdate.log:2024-07-11T01:42:29Z esxupdate: 2101091: imageprofile: DEBUG:
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.51-73524741/commands/esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt:vmk0 Management Network IPv4 10.10.21.65
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.41-65846082/var/run/log/esxupdate.log:2024-09-23T02:47:30Z esxupdate: 2101544: imageprofile: DEBUG:
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.41-65846082/commands/esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt:vmk0 Management Network IPv4 10.10.21.96
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--10.19-80364452/var/run/log/esxupdate.log:2024-07-11T04:47:25Z esxupdate: 2101125: Transaction: DEBUG:
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--10.19-80364452/commands/esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt:vmk0 Management Network IPv4 10.10.21.68
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.45-84267988/var/run/log/esxupdate.log:2024-07-22T02:47:43Z esxupdate: 248268740: Transaction: DEBUG:
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--09.45-84267988/commands/esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt:vmk0 Management Network IPv4 10.10.21.69
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--10.16-79714476/var/run/log/esxupdate.log:2024-07-05T08:40:18Z esxupdate: 2101594: Transaction: DEBUG:
./esx-localhost-2025-03-25--10.16-79714476/commands/esxcfg-vmknic_-l.txt:vmk0 Management Network IPv4 10.10.21.64

désert/VMware/ESXi (last edited 2025-04-02 06:32:20 by merlyn)