DHCP IP assignment of vmnic

[cjsinger]

Hi,

Does ESXI try and get an IP address for each of the VMnics on vswitches independantly of the VMs?  The reason I ask is I am running pfSense as a a Router/NAT for my network in a VM and my ISP is telling me that I am requesting two IP addresses.  I have created two vSwitches, one that is connected to my modem and one that is the internal network.  Both are assigned to the pfSense VM and the pfSense should be the only user of the Public one.

It seems that ESXi is taking an address and pfSense also requests an address on its WAN port.  Ultimately I don't need/want ESXI to have its own address as it conflicts with the address that pfSense wants to get.  Ideally pfSense gets sole ownership of the public NIC as it isn't needed by ESXi.

How do I prevent ESXi from getting an address?

Cheers,

Clint

[Dave_Mishchenko]

When you create a vmkernel port it can be manually assigned an IP address or be set to use DHCP.  That said, you don't require a vmkernel port on each vSwitch.   It's not likely that you require a vmkernel port on your ISP vSwitch.  You can remove it and VMs won't be impacted by the lack of vmkernel port.

[cjsinger]

I am brand new to ESXi so I am not too sure sure how to go about what you said.  I did some searches trying to figure out how to do what you said but didn't come up (or wasn't sure) with anything.

vmnic0 is the one that I want dedicated to the VM.  Do you have a link I could follow that would describe how to do what I am after?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You're going to end up with 2 vSwitches.  Each will be connected to a physical nic (vmnicX).

On your LAN you can use vSwitch0 which is created by default, is linked to vmnic0 and contains one vmkernel port (Managment Network) and a virtual machine port group (Virtual Machines). 

You'll have a second vSwitch which is connected to vmnic1 and that is connected to your ISP modem.  That vSwitch should only contain a virtual machine port group.  Your firewall VMs will then be configured with two virtual NICs with one virtual NIC connected to the VM port group on vSwitch0 and the other connected to vSwitch1.

With this config only the firewall VM will obtain an IP by DHCP from your ISP.

[cjsinger]

From what you are describing, I think that is the configuration that I have (more or less).  I have 3 nics.  One is connected to the modem, one is the private NAT'd network and one is connected to a physical switch which I use for strictly management.

I have attached a screenshot of my current setup.

vmnic0 is attached to the modem and is in vSwitch1

vmnic1 is attached to the internal private NAT'd network and vSwitch2

vmnic2 is attached to the management network and vSwitch0

If I understand you correctly, vSwitch1 only has a VM Port Group and no VMkernel Port, which means it shouldn't be requesting an IP address?

If that is the case then perhaps it isn't requesting for an IP address anymore and the address that they are showing is just residual.

EDIT: I should point out that ESXi shows that I have a name and a domain from my ISP which makes me think it is still requesting that information from the ISP.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

If you access the DCUI of your host,  which vmnic is set as the management NIC (Configure Management Network > Network Adapters).

[cjsinger]

I only have vmnic2 selected which is the one that is on the private switch not connected to the modem.

Is there a way to tell what the ip addresses of each vmnic is from the perspective of ESXi?  Perhaps that way I can tell if they are still requesting an IP address.