Ports Configuration for ESX3 and VC2 communication

Here is a list of ports that VirtualCenter and ESX use to talk to each other and what they do. If you have firewalls between datacenters or between servers and VirtualCenter or if you just want to take a look at your traffic then this may help. Read on.

443 - Well known as the SSL port. This port is used for the Web Access Client and the SDK to access the VirtualCenter server. It also offers direct access from third party clients and Web Access clients to the ESX server. Third party clients may include things that have been build with the VMware SDK.

902 - This is the port that the Virtual Infrastructure client uses to talk to the VirtualCenter server. This is also the port the the VirtualCenter server uses to talk to the ESX hosts. This port allows the VI client direct access to the ESX server.

903 - 903 is for access to the virtual machine consoles. This is used by both the web access client and the VI client.

2049 - This port is used for NAS storage communication.

3260 - This port is used fr iSCSI storage communication.

2050-5000 and 8042-8045 - High Availability or HA uses these port ranges to communicate with the ESX hosts.

8000 - Is the port used for incoming VMotion requests

27000 - The ESX server uses this port for license communication to the license server

27010 - The license server uses this port for outgoing communication of license information.