Author: Danilo

Configuring NSX Manager Virtual IP (VIP) is an important step to improve availability and simplify access in an NSX-T Data Center environment. In this guide, we will demonstrate how to configure the built-in Virtual IP feature available on NSX Manager. VMware recommends deploying multiple NSX Manager appliances to provide redundancy and reliability for the NSX-T management plane. When a Virtual IP is configured, administrators can use a single IP address to access the NSX Manager environment instead of connecting to each appliance individually. If you are interested to know more about NSX-T, we wrote an article that introduces the NSX-T…

Increasing the heartbeat timeout in vCenter value can help administrators adjust how long vCenter Server waits before marking an ESXi host as not responding. In this guide, we will show how to configure a new timeout value through vCenter Server advanced settings. Before we get started, we have an article that explains how to debug the heartbeat communication between vCenter and ESXi host. Click HERE to read this article. As a normal communication, each ESXi host inside a vCenter Server sends a UDP heartbeat packet every 10 seconds to the vCenter Server. Basically, when the vCenter receives this packet, it…

Some useful esxcli network commands is an article that shows some useful esxcli network commands that help the administrator in day-to-day life. esxcli network commands are essential tools for VMware ESXi administrators who need to troubleshoot, configure, and monitor host networking from the command line. In this guide, we will explore some of the most useful esxcli network commands used in daily administration tasks. So, before we start, I would like to share a command reference (guide) related to the ESXi command. In this guide, we can find a lot of esxcli commands, syntax, etc: Firstly, the list of commands…

Understanding and explaining vSAN’s free capacity is essential to maintain a healthy vSAN cluster and ensure enough space for internal operations. In this article, we will explain how vSAN uses available capacity, the concept of Slack Space, and the importance of reserve capacity. vSAN requires free space for several internal activities, including data evacuation during host maintenance mode, component rebuilds, rebalancing operations, and virtual machine snapshot processes. VMware recommends maintaining a percentage of available capacity to support these operations and avoid potential issues during cluster activities. When performing operations such as changing storage policies, vSAN may temporarily require additional raw…

Debugging vCenter and ESXi heartbeat communication is an essential troubleshooting task when ESXi hosts experience intermittent disconnections, appear as Not Responding, or lose communication with vCenter Server. Because the heartbeat mechanism is one of the primary methods used by vCenter to verify host availability, analyzing this traffic can quickly determine whether the problem is caused by network connectivity, packet loss, firewall rules, routing issues, or service failures. In a healthy VMware environment, every ESXi host periodically sends heartbeat packets to the vCenter Server over UDP port 902. These heartbeat messages are transmitted every 10 seconds by the vpxa (vCenter Server…

Adding additional NSX Manager appliance is an important step when expanding an NSX-T Data Center environment. In this guide, we will demonstrate how to add a new NSX Manager node to an existing Management Cluster and configure the required parameters. VMware recommends deploying multiple NSX Manager appliances to improve resilience and redundancy in the environment. After the first NSX Manager deployment is completed, additional appliances can be added directly through the NSX Manager interface. The process involves accessing the current NSX Manager UI, starting the appliance addition wizard, and providing the required information such as hostname, IP configuration, DNS, NTP,…