[SOLVED] Using network for serial console ESXi 6.5

[downsyndrome]

Hello,

 

I'm using Jun's DS3617xs bootloader for DSM 6.1 on my ESXi 6.5 server.

 

I'd like to be able to use the serial console (bidirectionally if possible) since I really miss the screen console output with Nanoboot 5.2 - it really helps with debugging if I can't get far enough to SSH into the VM.

 

I've tried to set up the serial console with the following settings:

 

Direction: Server

Port URI: telnet://192.168.1.24:23

(Not using serial port concentrator)

 

When I try to telnet to DSM bootloader VM, I get the following:

 

Trying 192.168.1.24...

telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: No route to host

 

It also does the same thing when changing the direction to "client".

 

More info: I'm using telnet from Ubuntu 17.04 terminal.

 

Seems like it should work ? Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

 

Thanks!

[downsyndrome]

For anyone interested, I finally got this to work by setting the VM's serial port 1 IP to the same IP as the ESXi server, and enabling remoteSerialPort rule in the firewall using esxcli.

[dajo.joda]

Great hint, thanks!

 

FYI, firewall adjustment was not necessary in my case (also using ESXi 6.5)