VMware ESXi DCUI (Direct Console User Interface) Basics:
From the vSphere Web Client, on the Summary tab, click Launch Console. From the VMware Host Client, click Console and select an option from the drop-down menu. Click inside the console window and press F2 to customize the system. Type the password for the root user of the appliance and press Enter.
Esxi Exit Console
The first screen after ESXi installation or boot is called ESXi DCUI (Direct Console User Interface). In this blog we will discuss some basic configurations of ESXi using DCUI. Although all the configuration can be done using vSphere Client, vCenter or SSH login but ESXi DCUI is used when there is some network issue in all remote options or in case of first time Static IP Address allocation to management interface.
Utilize Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) and ESXi Shell to Troubleshoot, Configure, and Monitor an Environment This will be a short post intended to cover the VCAP5-DCA objective of using the DCUI and ESX cli/shell to monitor and troubleshoot a host. With ESXi, the “console” is a simple yellow and black menu driven text interface with only the most basic options. However, ESXi actually has an extremely thin linux-based console that can be accessed. Officially, VMware says that you should administer your ESXi server using either the GUI VI Client or the CLI VMware RCLI. It is possible to open the DCUI (Direct Console User Interface) via SSH – using putty for example: Open a putty to your ESXi Host (it is necessary to enable SSH – you can find a “how-to” below) and run the command “dcui”.
First of all, just after installing ESXi we see a screen with Yellow and Grey background showing VMware ESXi version, CPU/Memory resources and the link to download the vSphere Client to manage that host in below format:
http://hostname/
http://<IP Address>/
However you can also download the vSphere Client from VMware website (above links will also use the same VMware link to download).
There are only two options available, first “F2” to customize system/view logs and second “F12” to Shut Down/Restart ESXi host. To enter into the configuration page you need to press “F2” then it will ask for User Authentication (by default root user’s credential). Enter the password and it will open the System Customization page.
ESXi System Customization:
System Customization page provides the following features:
- Configure Password
- Configure Lockdown Mode
- Configure Management Network
- Restart Management Network
- Test Management Network
- Network Restore Options
- Configure Keyboard
- Troubleshooting Options
- View System Logs
- View Support Information
- Reset System Configuration
Features Details:
Access Esxi Console
Modifying the root password is very simple, just select Configure Password and press Enter. It will ask for Old & New passwords to change the password. Enter the required details then press Enter.
Lockdown Mode is a security feature that prevents user to perform operations against the ESXi host directly. This feature is disabled by-default and only available on ESXi hosts that have been added to vCenter Server.
To configure Hostname, IP Address, DNS use Configure Management Network option and don’t forget to restart the management network as soon as you finished the network configurations. You can also Test the Management Network by entering the IP addresses the Gateway or other servers like NTP.
In case of some issue in existing network configuration or you want to change the entire network configuration of ESXi host, VMware ESXi gives you Network Restore options.
If you have chosen the wrong Keyboard layout during ESXi installation, Don’t worry you can change it any time using Configure Keyboard.
Troubleshooting Options facilitates you to enable or disable ESXi Shell and SSH, In addition to that you can also configure the timeouts for Shell, SSH and ESXi DCUI.
You can also see the various system logs along with support information.
Access Esxi Shell From Console
And last but not least, if everything seems to be messed up and not under control. At this instant you can factory reset the ESXi hypervisor. As a result it will remove all the configurations including management IP address on ESXi host. But in production environment never ever try to use this option as it may impact your production.
Thanks!!