Specifications

Administration Guide
314 VMware, Inc.
VMkernel Network Card Locator
When!network!interface!cards!are!assigned!to!the!VMkernel,!it!can!be!difficult!to!map!
from!the!name!of!the!VMkernel!device!to!the!physical!network!adapter!on!the!machine.!
For!example,!if!four!Intel!EEPro!cards!in!a!machine!are!dedicated!to!the!VMkernel,!
these!cards!are!called!vmnic0,!
vmnic1,!vmnic2,!and!vmnic3.!The!name!of!a!card!is!
based!on!its!order!in!the!PCI!bus/slot!hierarchy!on!the!machine—the!lower!the!bus!and!
slot,!the!lower!the!number!at!the!end!of!the!name.!
If!there!is!more!that!one!type!of!network!interface!card,!the!first
!driver!that!is!loaded!
claims!its!virtual!NICs!(vmnic)!in!PCI!slot!order ,!the!next!driver!that!is!loaded!claims!
its!virtual!NICs!(vmnic)!in!PCI!slot! order,!and!so!on.
This!naming!policy!is!also!valid!for!the!functions!within!a!slot!for!multifunction!
devices,!for!example,!a
!dual!port!NIC!which!occupies!a!single!slot!but!has!two!
functions:!bus1.slot1.function1!and!bus1.slot1.function2.!The!functions!are!enumerated!
for!each!slot!in!the!same!way!that!the!slots!are!enumerated!for!each!device!type.
findnic Command
If!you!know!the!bus!and!slot!order!of!the!adapters,!you!can!determine!which!adapter!
has!which!name.!If!you!don’t,!use!the!findnic!program!to!make!the!proper!association!
of!network!adapter!to!name.!
The!format!of!the!command!is!
findnic <options> <nic-name> <local-ip> <remote-ip>
The!findnic!program!takes!a!VMkernel!network!device!name,!an!IP!address!to!give!
the!device!on!the!local!machine!and!an!IP!address!that!findnic!should!try!to!ping.!
When!you!issue!the!command,!findnic!pings!the!remote!IP!address.!
This!allows!you!to!determine!which!adapter!is!which!by
!looking!at!the!LEDs!on!the!
cards!to!see!which!one!has!flashing!lights!or!by!seeing!whether!the!ping!is!successful.!
Options
-f
Do!a!flood!ping.!
-i <seconds>
Interval!in!seconds!between!pings.!