Network Native

While working at VMware I learned the value of capturing packets inside of an ESXi hypervisor. I used packet capture so frequently I memorized the commands. Let me explain the basics of ESXi packet capture in this post. A network engineer's most precise tool to figure out what is happening in the network is always going to be a packet capture. Fortunately, ESXi hypervisors make this easy. My baseline of comparison? Packet capturing on physical networking infrastructure, such as a Cisco switch. With Cisco, the process entails creating a monitor port, connecting a cable to the switch, attaching a computer with a packet sniffer and finally, collecting and analyzing the packets with an application such as Wireshark. With ESXi packet capturing, the most cumbersome aspect is remembering the incredibly long commands! My pcap (packet capture) commands can be referenced in VMware's official documentation: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-703-net