6.6

Solution
The firewall rules must be recreated to allow traffic to pass through for the Client Connection port and the
Default Channel port.VMware recommends that the firewall be configured to allow the Client to connect to the
Client Connection port by process, nfgui.exe, rather than by a specific port.To enable Channel communications
between nodes, change the Network List Manager Policy so that the VMware Channel network is identified as
a Private Network, and not the default Unidentified Network, and configure the firewall to allow traffic to pass
through on Port 57348, the Default Channel port.
Incorrect VMware Channel Configuration
An incorrectly configured channel connection can prevent proper communication and replication.
Problem
The following problems are experienced:
■
IP conflicts occur on one of the VMware Channel IP addresses
■
The VMware Channel does not connect, or connects and disconnects
Cause
The list below provides the most common misconfigurations:
■
Identical IP addresses at each end of the VMware Channel
■
IP addresses in different subnets without static routing at each end of the VMware Channel
■
VMware Channel NIC configured for DHCP when a DHCP server is not available
During installation, vCenter Server Heartbeat configures the VMware Channel NICs with user-provided
information. Incorrect information or incorrectly modifying the VMware Channel NIC configuration after installation
causes the VMware Channel to fail communicating.
On rare occasions, if the Primary and Secondary nodes have NICs of the same type in a different order, both
the name and IP address of a VMware Channel NIC on the Primary node can transfer to the Public NIC on
the Secondary node or the name and IP address of the Public NIC can transfer to a VMware Channel NIC.
Similarly, the names of the VMware Channel NICs can reverse on the Secondary node.You must reconcile
the names of the NICs with their physical identities and assign the correct IP address to each NIC on the
Secondary node.
Solution
The installation process manually assigns the correct IP addresses to each NIC on the Secondary node. If no
VMware Channel connection occurs between the nodes, verify the configuration of the IP addresses on the
Secondary's channel NICs. Check the settings for the Public NIC. The configuration error can remain
unrecognized until a failover occurs.
To capture the identities of all of the NICs on the Secondary prior to installing vCenter Server Heartbeat, open
a Windows Command Prompt on that node and execute the following command:
ipconfig /all > ipconfig.txt
The output of this command saves the name, TCP/IP configuration, and MAC address of each NIC on the
Secondary to a file called ipconfig.txt, which is present on that node after the PnP phase of the vCenter Server
Heartbeat install completes. Compare the pre-install and post-install state of each NIC by running ipconfig /all
from a Windows command prompt and compare the output of this command with the content of ipconfig.txt.
The MAC address of each NIC is connected to the physical identity of each card and never changes.You can
identify each NIC by its MAC address and determine its original name and network configuration, even if this
was updated by the PnP process.
88 VMware, Inc.
vCenter Server Heartbeat Administrator's Guide