ESXi host unexpectedly creates vmkernel ports from portgroups on the vSwitch

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Post an unexpected outage or an Environment down scenario, once the ESXi Host boots back up, you can see unwanted vmkernel interfaces created.
• Note : The vmkernel interfaces will have the names of the some of the Portgroups in the vSwitch/DVS.

Environment

• v7.x/v8.x vSphere ESXi.

Cause

• In the boot log, you can see the following snippets :

xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:36.892Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu6:1048827)Activating Jumpstart plugin restore-networking.
xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:36.892Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu0:1048832)Applying start on plugin restore-networking
xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:37.615Z Al(177) vmkalert: cpu6:1048827)ALERT: Jumpstart plugin restore-networking activation failed.
xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:49.043Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu7:1049430)Net: 2241: connected vmk4  to 801_PROD_#######_10.xx.xx.xxm24, portID 0x4000019
xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:49.043Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu7:1049430)Tcpip_Vmk: 123: vmk4:

Note : 801_PROD_#######_10.xx.xx.xxm24 was one of the Portgroups in the Environment tagged with VLAN 801

• In the localcli logs, you can see the following snippets :

 xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:48.776Z In(14) localcli[1049430]: Log for VMware ESXi version=8.0.2 build=build-23305546 option=Release
 xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:49.106Z In(14) localcli[1049430]: VmkNic: Enable: netstack:'defaultTcpipStack', interface:'vmk4', portStr:'801_PROD_#######_10.xx.xx.xxm24'

• This issue is caused by the misconfiguration of vSwitch/vSwitchBMC/vusb0
• In the syslog.0, you can see the following snippets :

xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:45.683Z In(30) configBmcNic.sh[1049271]: BMCNIC: Configure network setting for BMC NIC vusb0
xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:46.226Z In(30) configBmcNic.sh[1049299]: BMCNIC: Find existing BMC network PortGroup:801_PROD_#######_10.xx.xx.xxm24
xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:46.231Z In(30) configBmcNic.sh[1049300]: BMCNIC: Find existing BMC network vSwitch:vSwitch0
xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:49.422Z In(30) configBmcNic.sh[1049440]: BMCNIC: VMkernel Nic is vmk0 Name: Name: Name:
xxxx-yy-zzT06:18:49.683Z In(30) configBmcNic.sh[1049446]: BMCNIC: Setup BMC Network configuration Retry 1!

 

Resolution

Option 1 :

• Disable vUSB device. If the customer does not use vusb0, they can disable it.
• ESXi will not configure vSwitchBMC if there is no vusb0 found.
• This can be achieved by the following : https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/idrac9-lifecycle-controller-v3.0-series/idrac_3.00.00.00_ug/enabling-or-disabling-os-to-idrac-pass-through?guid=guid-25fc6820-9a01-4739-87c3-d2036b9adf80&lang=en-us

Option 2 :

• Disable /Net/BMCNetworkEnable and reboot the ESXi Host for the setting to take effect.
• Via an SSH session, run the following commands :
• esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /Net/BMCNetworkEnable
• reboot

Note : Before running the above options, it would be advisable to unlink vusb0 from vSwitch0, remove vSwitchBMC