Manage Uplink Adapters with ESXCLI

You can use ESXCLI to manage uplink adapters.

The following example workflow lists all uplink adapters, lists properties for one uplink adapter, changes the uplink's speed and duplex settings, and brings the uplink down and back up. Specify one of the options listed in Connection Options for ESXCLI Host Management Commands in place of <conn_options>.

Procedure

  1. List all uplinks and information about each device. 
    esxcli <conn_options> network nic list
    You can narrow down the information displayed by using esxcli network nic get --nic-name=<nic>.
  2. (Optional) Bring down one of the uplink adapters. 
    esxcli <conn_options> network nic down --nic-name=vmnic0
  3. Change uplink adapter settings. 
    esxcli <conn_options> network nic set <option>
    You must specify one of the following options.
    OptionDescription
    -a|--auto Sets the speed and duplex settings to autonegotiate.
    -D|--duplex=<str> Duplex to set this NIC to. Acceptable values are full and half.
    -P | --phy-address Sets the MAC address of the device
    -l|--message-level=<long> Sets the driver message level. Message levels and what they imply differ per driver.
    -n|--nic-name=<str> Name of the NIC to configured. Must be one of the cards listed in the nic list command (required).
    -p|--port=<str> Selects the device port. The following device ports are available.
    • aui
    • bnc
    • fibre
    • mii
    • tp
    -S|--speed=<long> Speed to set this NIC to. Acceptable values are 10, 100, 1000, and 10000.
    -t|--transceiver-type=<str> Selects transceiver type. The following transceiver types are available.
    • external
    • internal
    -w|--wake-on-lan=<str> Sets Wake-on-LAN options. Not all devices support this option. The option value is a string of characters specifying which options to enable.
    • p – Wake on phy activity
    • u – Wake on unicast messages
    • m – Wake on multicast messages
    • b – Wake on broadcast messages
    • a – Wake on ARP
    • g – Wake on MagicPacket
    • s – Enable SecureOn password for MagicPacket
  4. (Optional) Bring the uplink adapter back up. 
    esxcli <conn_options> network nic up --nic-name=vmnic0