Adding a static route to an ESX host for an extra Service Console interface

Symptoms

accessing-network  connection-fails-network  connect-network  esx-networking  no-network  separate-network  network-connection

Purpose

This article provides steps to add a static route for an extra Service Console network interface on an ESX host.

Resolution

Additional static routes can be added to route the traffic destined for a particular network segment via an alternate upstream router or gateway. This is useful when configuring multiple Service Console network interfaces, to statically assign different gateway addresses for different network segments.

To apply a static route automatically when the ESX host starts:

1. Open a console to the ESX host. For more information, see Unable to connect to an ESX host using Secure Shell (SSH) (1003807).
2. Open the /etc/sysconfig/static-routes file using a text editor. For more information, see Editing configuration files in VMware ESX (1017022).
3. Add a line for each desired static route using the syntax:any net <TargetNetwork> netmask <NetmaskAddress> gw <GatewayAddress>
   For example, to route network traffic destined for 142.121.56.0/23 through the gateway at 244.58.175.1, add the line:
   any net 142.121.56.0 netmask 255.255.254.0 gw 244.58.175.1
4. Run this command to apply the network configuration change:service network restart
5. Run this command to verify that the route was added successfully:route

To manually add a static route on a running host:

1. Open a console to the ESX host. For more information, see Unable to connect to an ESX host using Secure Shell (SSH) (1003807).
2. Add a static route using the command:route add -net <TargetNetwork> netmask <NetmaskAddress> gw <GatewayAddress>
   For example, to route network traffic destined for 142.121.56.0/23 through the gateway at 244.58.175.1, run the command:
   route add -net 142.121.56.0 netmask 255.255.254.0 gw 244.58.175.1
3. Run this command to verify that the route was added successfully:route

The configuration change takes effect immediately, but does not persist across a reboot
(from www.vmware.com)