Troubleshoot TCP connection issues from the ESX Service Console

By Arne Fokkema - ICT-Freak.nl

If you need to troubleshoot TCP connection issues from your ESX host. You will notice that Telnet isn’t available on your ESX host. But VMware posted a workaround in KB1010747. The reason why VMware did not include the Telnet package is simple:

The workaround is a Python script. You can copy the following script to your ESX host and place it in /tmp directory.

If you want to test if a particular TCP port is reachable from your ESX host. You can use the script like this:

In case the TCP port is not reachable from your ESX host. The script will just hang on your command and will eventually time out:

You can also cancel the script by pressing CTRL + C

I didn’t test the script from ESXi.