Create a Custom TCP/IP Stack

You can create a custom TCP/IP stack on a host to forward networking traffic through a custom application.

Once you set a TCP/IP stack for the VMkernel adapter, you cannot change it later. If you select the vMotion or the Provisioning TCP/IP stack, you can use only these stacks to handle vMotion or Provisioning traffic on the host. All VMkernel adapters for vMotion on the default TCP/IP stack are disabled for future vMotion sessions. If you set the Provisioning TCP/IP stack, VMkernel adapters on the default TCP/IP stack are disabled for operations that include Provisioning traffic, such as virtual machine cold migration, cloning, and snapshot migration.

If you must change the TCP/IP stack configuration, delete the existing VMkernel adapter and create a new one. You can then create a TCP/IP stack for that adapter.

Procedure

1. Open an SSH connection to the host.
2. Log in as the root user.
3. Run the ESXCLI command.

    esxcli network ip netstack add -N="stack_name"

Results

The custom TCP/IP stack is created on the host. You can assign VMkernel adapters to the stack.