Loading

×Sorry to interrupt
CSS Error

Refresh

Cookie Preference Center

General Information on cookies

When you visit our website, we use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience. This information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies by clicking on the different category headings to find out more and change your settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on the site and the services we are able to offer. Further information can be found in our

Cookie Policy.

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary

Always Active

Strictly Necessary

Strictly necessary cookies are always enabled since they are essential for our website to function. They enable core functionality such as security, network management, and website accessibility. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but this may affect how the website functions. For more information please visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Cookie Details‎

Performance

Performance

Performance

Performance cookies are used to analyze the user experience to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. They allow us to know which pages are the most and least popular, see how visitors move around the site, optimize our website and make it easier to navigate.

Cookie Details‎

Please confirm your settings by refreshing the page.

Functional

Functional

Functional

Functional cookies help us keep track of your past browsing choices so we can improve usability and customize your experience. These cookies enable the website to remember your preferred settings, language preferences, location and other customizable elements such as font or text size. If you do not allow these cookies, then some or all of these services may not function properly.

Cookie Details‎

Advertising

Advertising

Advertising

Advertising cookies are used to send you relevant advertising and promotional information. They may be set through our site by third parties to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on other sites. These cookies do not directly store personal information, but their function is based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device.

Cookie Details‎

Advertising Cookies

Consent Leg.Interest

Select All Vendors

Select All Vendors

Select All Hosts

Select All

Clear Filters

Information storage and access

Apply

Confirm My Choices Reject All Allow All

Skip to main content

My Subscriptions

Loading

Knowledge Base

Troubleshooting network connectivity issues using Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) (1008184)

Last Updated: 2/19/2014Categories: TroubleshootingTotal Views: 89653Language:
Chinese (Simplified)JapaneseEnglish

8 like this article

Subscribe to get an email
newsletter with new updates

8 people found this helpful Please provide article feedback:

Symptoms

A virtual machine cannot connect to the network.

Virtual machine tasks fail because of network disconnection.

ARP table does not show proper Media Access Control (MAC) addresses.

Purpose

This article provides information to help you troubleshoot ESX network connectivity issues using ARP.

Resolution

The ARP table is a dynamic system table that is built when virtual machines communicate over TCP/IP with other nodes. The ARP table automatically maps the IP address of a virtual machine to the MAC address (the network adapter's unique embedded address). After a period of time, if virtual machine A no longer communicates with virtual machine B, the system ages out the entry in the ARP table.

Virtual machines use ARP table entries to address packets to send to other nodes.

The ARP cache is a list of recently resolved IP addresses to MAC address mappings. If an entry in the ARP cache is incorrect, the IP datagram may be sent to the wrong computer. You must clear the ARP cache.

To clear the ARP cache:

To list the ARP table, run the command:

arp -a

To populate the ARP table on a certain interface, run this command from the service console to display all mappings currently in the ARP cache:

arping -I vswifX IP_address

Where IP_address is the IP address of the virtual machine.

To clear all entries, run the command:

arp -d IP_address

Where IP_address is an internet address stored in the ARP cache.

Run this command for each entry in the ARP cache until all entries have been deleted. When the ARP cache is empty, you see the message:

No ARP Entries Found

To populate the ARP table, ping a broadcast IP address to get a reply back from all hosts listening on the same subnet.

For example:

ping 10.10.10.255

Use the tcpdump command to monitor TCP/IP traffic. For more information, see Verifying gateway IP connection using the tcpdump command (1008017).

Note: In ESXi tcpdump is changed to tcpdump-uw

For information specific to ESXi 5.5, see Clearing the ARP cache table in ESXi 5.5 (2049667).

Related Information

For related troubleshooting information, see Troubleshooting virtual machine TCP/IP connection issues (1007842).

Notes:

This article applies only to ESX. It does not apply to ESXi. The only method of clearing the ARP cache on an ESXi 4.1 - 5.1 host is to reboot.

In ESXi 4.1, you can list the ARP table using this command:

esxcli network neighbor list

In ESXi 5, you can list the ARP table using this command:

esxcli network ip neighbor list

In ESXi 5.5, the ARP table now can be cleared by typing the command:

esxcli network ip neighbor remove

For more information on:

ARP commands for ESXi, see Displaying the ARP and Neighbor Discovery cache for VMkernel network interfaces (2000130).

ESXi 5.5 Network commands, see the VMware vSphere 5.5 Documentation Center .

To be alerted when this document is updated, click the Subscribe to Article link in the Actions box
ESX 3.0.3 and 3.5.x Patches Appear in Depot Even Though VirtualCenter Manages Only 3.5.x Hosts
Troubleshooting virtual machine TCP/IP connection issues
Verifying gateway IP connection using the tcpdump command
Displaying the ARP and Neighbor Discovery cache for VMkernel network interfaces
Clearing the ARP cache table in ESXi 5.5
使用地址解析协议 (ARP) 对网络连接问题进行故障排除
アドレス解決プロトコル（ARP）使用時のネットワーク接続の問題のトラブルシューティング

Detectable by VMware SkylineTM

Actions

Copy

link to clipboard
copied!

Print

Language:
Chinese (Simplified)JapaneseEnglish

Attachments

Additional Resources

KB
•
End Of General Availability of the Free vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 7.x and 8.x) (2107518)

Result 1 of 1

Ask The Community

Get answers quickly from VMware experts in the community

Post Subject

CONTINUE IN COMMUNITIES

Related Products:

VMware ESX Server

Related Versions:

VMware ESX Server 3.5.x

VMware ESX Server 3.0.x

VMware ESX 4.1.x

VMware ESX 4.0.x

Take Our Survey

Was this article helpful?

YES

NO

Copyright © 2005-2024 Broadcom. All Rights Reserved. The term “Broadcom” refers to Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Terms of Use

Your California Privacy Rights

Privacy

Accessibility

Cookie Settings

Support Assistant