Redirect the Direct Console to a Serial Port from the vSphere Web Client

You can manage the ESXi host remotely from a console that is connected to the serial port by redirecting the direct console to either of the serial ports com1 or com2. When you use the vSphere Web Client to redirect the direct console to a serial port, the boot option that you set persists after subsequent reboots.

Prerequisites

• Verify that you can access the host from the vSphere Web Client.
• Verify that the serial port is not in use for serial logging and debugging, or for ESX Shell (tty1Port).

Procedure

1. From the vSphere Web Client, connect to the vCenter Server.
2. Select the host in the inventory.
3. Click the Manage tab.
4. Click Settings.
5. Under System, select Advanced System Settings.
6. Make sure that the VMkernel.Boot.logPort and VMkernel.Boot.gdbPort fields are not set to use the com port that you want to redirect the direct console to.
7. Set VMkernel.Boot.tty2Port to the serial port to redirect the direct console to: com1 or com2.
8. Reboot the host.

Results

You can now manage the ESXi host remotely from a console that is connected to the serial port.