When trying to configure the IP address or enable a Service Console the following error may appear:

# esxcfg-vswif -e vswif0
Error trying to perform operation Exec of command '/sbin/ifup vswif0' suceeded, but returned with non-zero status: 1

In addition the ip address is listed as 0.0.0.0:

# esxcfg-vswif -l
Name     Port Group          IP Address       Netmask          Broadcast        Enabled   DHCP
vswif0   Service Console     0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0          true      false

This results from an IP address conflict:

- Bind another IP address on the same subnet to the the service console:

# esxcfg-vswif -i 192.168.1.99 -n 255.255.255.0 vswif0

- Ping the conflicting IP address:

# ping 192.168.1.10
PING 192.168.1.10 (192.168.1.10) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.10: icmp_seq=0 ttl=128 time=1.36 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=0.278 ms
--- 192.168.1.10 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 5011ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.278/0.517/1.361/0.379 ms, pipe 2

- Check the ARP table:

# arp -a
server.domain.com (192.168.1.10) at 00:99:99:99:99:99 [ether] on vswif0

00:99:99:99:99:99 is the MAC of the conflicting server.