Every VMware production’s implementation has two steps firstly, installation, and secondly, configuration. In the previous post, we explained how to install an ESXi host. We will do basic configuration in this post, such as setting the ESXi management IP address.
Primary Management Console
After the ESXi installation completes, as shown in the image below, you will see the Primary management ESXi console, which contains valuable information.
ESXi management console displays the ESXi version and its build number beside the Server CPU model. Therefore administrators will be able to check version compatibility and hardware version quickly. Now Press F2 and enter the root password we set in the installation steps.
Administrators can Customize system configuration through this bumblebee menu. Changing the root password is only available in this menu. For root password recovery, Administrators must change GRUB options. It is a challenging process without having enough knowledge of Linux.
Configure management Network -Network adapters
This Submenu displays a list of physical network adapters, specified by Device name, Mac Address, and status. Word “vmnic” represents a physical network adapter in VMware environments. Select adapters for a management network connection that management traffic passes through these adapters. It is more reliable to select more than one vmnic because of fault tolerance and load balancing.
VLAN
VMware recommends having a specific management VLAN. In other words, separating management traffic from other traffics. To configure a management VLAN, Network Administrator must create and configure the VLAN first and set the switch port as a ‘Trunk allowed VLAN.’
IPv4 Configuration
This setting provides IPv4 address configuration. Administrators can either set the DHCP server for a dynamic IP address or a static IP address. To clarify, this IP is the ESXi host management IP address.
IPv6 configuration
In the same vein, static and dynamic IPv6 addresses are available to configure. Consider that Disabling IPv6 requires restarting the server.
DNS configuration
Creating an A record for each ESXi host in the DNS server is more functional than using the IP. Hence set the DNS IP address and the Hostname according to the A record. The automatic DNS setting is only available for dynamic IP addresses.
Custom DNS Suffix
Set the domain name in this part. It will append to the hostname, ready to send as a DNS query.
Testing Management Network
After Completing the Management network configuration, use the Testing Management Network submenu .it will ping the Default gateway and DNS server and resolves the hostname.
After testing the Management network, press ESC and press y as yes to save the configuration. saving configuration requires a server reboot.
So far, we have completed ESXi initial configuration. ESXi User interface is available by the IP address or the URL set in the configuration.
In the next post, we will discuss Virtual switches.
Perfect