Saturday, June 19, 2010

Enabling Jumbo frames on ESXi through vSphere CLI

If you want to enable jumbo frames or install drivers use the CLI option. Dont enable SSH and go to the unsupported console.

Download and install vSphere CLI on the desktop or on the laptop you used to manage the ESXi servers.

Once installed , go to Start - programs - vmware- vSphere CLI. This will open the command prompt and cd to bin directory. dir will list all the commands for you

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>

1) the below command will list all the switches and MTU size

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin> vicfg-vswitch.pl --server vm4 -l

Enter username: root
Enter password:
Switch Name     Num Ports       Used Ports      Configured Ports    MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch1                 64                      1                  64                     1500

2) Run the below command to change the MTU size of the vswitch1

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin> vicfg-vswitch.pl --server vm4 -m 9000 vSwitch1

3) To list the changes , run the command

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin> vicfg-vswitch.pl --server vm4 -l
Enter username: root
Enter password:
Switch Name     Num Ports       Used Ports      Configured Ports    MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch1                     64                  1                   64                     9000

4) The below command will list the MTU of the vmnic 

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin> esxcfg-nics.pl -server vm4 -l

Hope this helps someone. You can do this through vSphere CLI,or  vMA. But don't do this in unsupported way by enabling SSH.
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3 comments:

  1. I am using ESXi Freeware version and get the following message "fault.RestrictedVersion.summary"

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  2. Hey there..
    Jumbo frames support is not included in a ESXi 4.0 free edition license.

    refer the kb article from vmware for more details

    http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1012454

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  3. I'm able to configure Jumbo frame on both vswitch and vmknics on esx4i using ssh, i suppose it's ok as 4.1i do support both local & remote console mode.

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