6.5

Table Of Contents
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The distributed switch itself (3) functions as a single virtual switch across all associated hosts. Because
the switch is not associated with a single host, virtual machines can maintain consistent network
conguration as they migrate from one host to another.
Like a standard switch, each distributed switch is a network hub that virtual machines can use. A
distributed switch can route trac internally between virtual machines or link to an external network
by connecting to physical network adapters. You create a distributed switch by using the
vSphere Web Client UI, but can manage some aspects of a distributed switch by using vicfg-vswitch.
You can list distributed virtual switches by using the esxcli network vswitch command. See “Seing
Up Virtual Switches and Associating a Switch with a Network Interface,” on page 136.
Retrieving Basic Networking Information
Service console commands for retrieving networking information are not included in the ESXi Shell. You can
instead use ESXCLI commands directly in the shell or use vCLI commands.
On ESXi 5.0, ifconfig information should be the information of the VMkernel NIC that aaches to the
Management Network port group. You can retrieve information by using ESXCLI commands.
esxcli <conn_options> network ip interface list
esxcli <conn_options> network ip interface ipv4 get -n vmk<X>
esxcli <conn_options> network ip interface ipv6 get -n vmk<X>
esxcli <conn_options> network ip interface ipv6 address list
For information corresponding to the Linux netstat command, use the following ESXCLI command.
esxcli <conn_options> network ip connection list
You can also ping individual hosts with the esxcli network diag ping command. The command includes
options for using ICMPv4 or ICMPv6 packet requests, specifying an interface to use, specifying the interval,
and so on.
Troubleshoot a Networking Setup
You can use vCLI network commands to view network statistics and troubleshoot your networking setup.
The nested hierarchy of commands allows you to drill down to potential trouble spots.
Procedure
1 List all virtual machine networks on a host.
esxcli network vm list
The command returns for each virtual machine the World ID, name, number of ports, and networks, as
in the following example.
World ID Name Num Ports Networks
----------------------------------------------------
10374 ubuntu-server-11.04-1 2 VM Network, dvportgroup-19
10375 ubuntu-server-11.04-2 2 VM Network, dvportgroup-19
10376 ubuntu-server-11.04-3 2 VM Network, dvportgroup-19
10408 ubuntu-server-11.04-4 3 VM Network, VM Network 10Gbps, dvportgroup-19
vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples
134 VMware, Inc.