Installation guide

CHAPTER 11 Networking
365
The VMkernel Network Card Locator
When network interface cards are assigned to the VMkernel, sometimes it is difficult to
map from the name of the VMkernel device to the physical network adapter on the
machine.
For example, if there are four Intel EEPro cards in a machine and all are dedicated to
the VMkernel, these four 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, then the first driver that is
loaded claims its virtual NICs (vmnic) in PCI slot order, then 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 figure out which adapter
has which name. However, if you don’t, you can use the findnic program to help
you 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 if the ping itself is successful.
Options
-f
Do a flood ping.
-i <seconds>
Interval in seconds between pings.