Unable to set a static ip for ESXi

[rightclix]

Hi everyone

This is my first post and i am a complete newb to vmware and esxi.

I purchased a HP Microserver N40l to learn about vmware as a lot of people seem to be doing with this server and address my storage issue at the same time. originally i posted on another forum and while they were a great help they were not sure on the vmware side of things so i am putting my plea for help on here.

in summary

I have installed esxi 5.0 via usb so far on the server with the vsphere client installed on a remote machine. I am hoping to configure some vm's to familiarise myself with vmware, primarily consisting of a couple of xp machines and server 2003.

I also want to sort out my storage problem. Currently my data is all over the place. I have 3 x desktop and 1 x laptop.
My stoarge comprises of :
1x TB external seagate
1x 250gb external seagate
1x 160gb Win 7 Desktop
1x 500gb Win 7 Desktop
1x 250gb HP N40L

I want to host a clean install of win 7 on my desktops and keep all media on a raid setup on the server with the ability to access this media and remote access from each machine.

the problem is i have a dhcp setup at home and even though i intially configured the esxi to static i switched it on now and the ip address has changed.

So i had to change to the corresponding address on v-sphere to login. This is a  fibre optic cable setup (not adsl). is there a way around this or do i have to request a stack of ip's from my ISP as i don't see them giving me a set of static ip's.

thanks

[aaronwsmith]

If you have multiple devices on your local network, then you must have a router between your ISP's connection and those devices supporting NAT.  Generally these routers use a private subnet like 192.168.1.0/24, with the router itself using 192.168.1.1.  But you'll have to check your setup to confirm.

Either way, assuming that is correct, your router will have DHCP settings, and you can set it's starting address to a higher range so you have some room for static IPs.  Otherwise you may run into IP address conflicts on your network.

What static IP are your trying to set on your ESXi host?  I would speculate it's changing on your because what you entered was not valid.  Either way, should not be a need to get static IPs from your ISP.

[rightclix]

Hi Arron

Thanks for putting me in the right direction. I can confirm i do have a router that is used to connect multiple devices so i will confirm the ip address when i finish work.

Would you be able to advise what my ip range should be once i confirm what it is as i am poor at working ip ranges, can never get my head around it no matter how many times i read about it, or better still summarise how you would work out a range.

I will post my findings later.

thanks so far.

[aaronwsmith]

One easy way to get an idea of what your local network's DHCP scope is to look at a local device like one of your Windows 7 devices and run "ipconfig" and see what IP is assigned (as well as the subnet mask and default gateway.)  Like I said generally these home routers use 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.254 (router takes 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.255 is a special broadcast IP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_address)  But some routers use completely different IP ranges, so I don't want to assume what yours will be.

What model is your router?

Either way, login to your router via a web browser, and see if you can find DHCP settings anywhere.  What you're looking for is something like "Starting IP" for the DHCP settings.  For example, on my linksys router, I change this setting to 192.168.1.50, so DHCP leases would start at .50 and higher.  This leaves me 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.49 to assign static IPs to devices.

Once you figure this out, you can just pick a static IP within that range and assign it to your ESXi host, also using the subnet mask and gateway info you got from your Windows 7 device.

[rightclix]

Hi Aaron

I can confirm my ip address starts from  192.168.0.1,

my router is a D-link. If i have read your post properly you changed your linksys ip to .50 so you havea range between .2 and .49 for devices. Would i have to do the same with mine?

thanks

[aaronwsmith]

Nope, don't change the router IP.  Actually the pic you added shows your DHCP range is 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.199. So you can use any IP in the range 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.99 as static.

So for your ESXi host, try this:

IP 192.168.0.5

Subnet mask 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway 192.168.0.1

[rightclix]

it's ok

i gave it the address that was already assigned as dhcp and added it to the static dhcp client list.

[aaronwsmith]

That works as well I suppose!  Sounds like you're set then.