Virtual Center

VMware 3.5 and Virtual Infrastruture Client 2.5 Ports

Check this link out, it has a neat port guide in PDF format with all the ports mapped and labelled. Its a visual representation of the ports below.

22. SSH access to service console.
80. HTTP access to web servers.
443. HTTPS SSL access to web servers for VI Web Access.
902. VI Client access to ESX Server or VirtualCenter, and communication between VirtualCenter and ESX Server hosts or between hosts.
903. VM Console access via VI Client or VI Web Access.
2049. Connection to NFS storage devices.
2050-5000, and 8042-8045. Traffic between ESX Server hosts for VMware HA (also utilizes EMC Automated Availability Manager).
3260. Connection to iSCSI storage devices.
8000. Incoming requests from VMotion.
8083. VirtualCenter diagnostics port.
8086. Apache Tomcat web server admin on VirtualCenter Server
27000. License transactions from ESX Server to the License Server.
27010. License transactions from the License Server.

VMWare Virtual Center Goodness

Well this isn’t about how much fun you can have with VMWare Virtual Center, but on how somethings can be worked around and some things just need to be re-installed!

Starts off with an couple ESX Servers and Virtual Center all running out of evaluation days… yes I know, procrastination on my part… and to top it off, my Virtual Center Server (which was a VM, and yes its a supported configuration) was off. When attempting to turn the server back on, the screen barked at me with a message stating that I did not have the proper licensing to do that. Well what does one do? You cheat How you say? Create a temporary license from your vmware login/manage licenses. Since the ESX Server is out of eval, you create yourself a nice little lic file and select host based licensing. Once you have the licensing in place you should be able to boot up virtual center. Once you have virtual center up and running, change all licensing to License Server-based Licensing. But be warned, if you let everything including Virtual Center Server run out of eval days, you may have to completely uninstall and reinstall VMWare Virtual Center, this includes SQL Server Express(if you chose to use it) Oh and before uninstalling SQL from Add/Remove Programs, remove “VMWare Update Manager” and “VMWare Virtual Center” from ODBC System DSN Tab.

How do I know all this? Spend 3 hours on the phone with a VMWare Licensing expert and a VMware Technical Engineer, and you will too!

NS