| Configuration Files |
| /etc/vmware/esx.conf |
| An all new configuration file for ESX Server 3.x. This file replaces the functionality of the following configuration files found in earlier versions of ESX./etc/vmware/hwconfig/etc/vmware/devnames.conf/etc/vmware/vmkmodule.conf/etc/vmware/netmap.conf
/etc/vmware/vmkconfig This file should not be copied from one ESX host to another in order to duplicate configuration, it is unique to the host. The file groups similar settings by using a notation similar to directories and subdirectories; for example, here is a section of esx.conf <output> |
| /etc/nsswitch.conf |
| This is the name service switch configuration file. If you need to modify the order of how names in the service console are resolved, this is the place to make the change. You can view and edit this conf file as usual.There will be a number of lines to this file, but the one you are likely to be interested in will start “hosts:” as shown:hosts: files dnsIn the above example, the name service will use the /etc/hosts file, and then the DNS name server specified in the /etc/resolv.conf file. |
| /usr/bin/vmware-watchdog |
| This process watches over the hostd process and restarts it if it crashes. |
| hostd |
| This is the daemon that replaces vmware-serverd that was found in the ESX 2.x products. This is the host management agent and is responsible for a number of key management functions on an ESX host. If you are having any “host not responding” type problems, before you even think of an ESX host restart, consider just a restart of the management agent; it’s amazing how often a quick restart of hostd gets things going again.We can restart the host management agent with the commandservice mgmt-vmware restart |
| /var/log/vmware/hostd.log |
| The log file for the host management agent. |
| /etc/vmware/firewall/services.xml |
| This file contains the definitions for the TCP ports and service names used by the service console firewall. When we use the esxcfg-firewall command to open ports based on friendly service names such as sshServer, that name is a definition in this XML file. A typical service definition in this file looks like <service id=’0000′> <id>sshServer</id> <rule> <direction>inbound</direction> <protocol>tcp</protocol> <port type=’dst’>22</port> <flags>-m state –state NEW</flags> </rule> </service>You could modify this XML file to include your own definitions but this is not recommended by VMware. The VMware management agent (hostd) will load everything in this file, whether it is valid or not. Also, we have not tested if such a change would persist through a patching/upgrade, but we suspect not. Duncan Epping over at Yellow Bricks has done some great testing and documentation in this space and at the following link demonstrates how to add your own custom.xml file to the /etc/vmware/firewall directory (using same format as services.xml) to provide custom port definitions. Just make sure you use ids in the file that are different than the ones in services.xml. |
| vpxa |
| This is the name of the VirtualCenter server agent that runs in the service console of ESX 3.x servers (which was called vmware-ccagent in ESX 2.x). This can be stopped, started or restarted with the service commandservice vmware-vpxa restart |
| /etc/opt/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg |
| This is the XML configuration file for the VirtualCenter Server Agent in the service console. Here is a typical vpxa.cfg file.[root@esx1host vmware]# cat vpxa.cfg<config> <log> <outputToConsole>false</outputToConsole>
</log> <nfc> <loglevel>error</loglevel> </nfc> <vmacore> <ssl> <doVersionCheck>false</doVersionCheck> </ssl> <threadpool> <TaskMax>10</TaskMax> </threadpool> </vmacore> <vpxa> <datastorePrincipal>root</datastorePrincipal> <hostIp>100.100.100.11</hostIp> <memoryCheckerTimeInSecs>30</memoryCheckerTimeInSecs> <serverIp>100.100.100.172</serverIp> <serverPort>902</serverPort> </vpxa> <workingDir>/var/log/vmware/vpx</workingDir> Notice the <loglevel> tag. If you are trying to troubleshoot an issue, then increasing the logging level is a good idea. We have used the level “verbose”, there could be a higher debug level of logging, but we’ve not tested that. We have also found the loglevel trivia, info, warning and error. |
| /var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log |
| The log file for VirtualCenter agent in the service console. |
ESX Configuration Files
Posted by itjohn on February 9th, 2009
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Further Reading
- Esxcfg-firewall
- Changing the IP address, default gateway and hostname of the Service Console in ESX Server 3.x
- esxcfg-firewall
- esxcfg-swiscsi
- VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB)
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I am running ESX 3.5 U3. I found vpxa.cfg in /etc/opt/vmware/vpxa not in /etc/vmware on my system.
Thank you for the correction. I double checked the location on one of my servers and you are correct. I updated the post to reflect the proper location.
Good eye… Thanx
[...] agent.exe, my registry value in run was ccagent.exe which in Drive:UsersthisuserAppData…ESX Configuration Files |Configuration Files /etc/vmware/esx.conf An all new configuration file for ESX Server 3.x. This file [...]