DESL Microgrid Handbook

A handbook and learning notes for the DESL Microgrid platform.
Author

Wenyu Liu

Published

September 14, 2026

IT Infrastructure

Overview

The DESL Microgrid server setup utilizes a physical Dell server running VMware ESXi hypervisor to host three distinct virtual machines (VMs). This virtualization approach isolates network traffic, database management, and control functions while allowing fast internal inter-VM communication over software switches (vSwitch).

                          ┌────────────────────────┐      ┌────────────────────────┐
                          │ DESL Microgrid Subnet  │      │   EPFL Public Network  │
                          │     192.168.1.X        │      │     128.179.xx.xx      │
                          └───────────┬────────────┘      └───────────┬────────────┘
                                      │                               │
        ┌─────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┐
        │ Dell Physical Server        │ vmnic0                        │ vmnic3                   │
        │ (ESXi Host: 192.168.1.55)   │                               │                          │
        │                             ▼                               ▼                          │
        │                   ┌──────────────────┐            ┌──────────────────┐                 │
        │                   │     vSwitch0     │            │     vSwitch1     │                 │
        │                   └─────────┬────────┘            └─────────┬────────┘                 │
        │                             │                               │                          │
        │      ┌──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┐        │                          │
        │      │ ens256               │ ens160               │ Ethernet0 │ ens192                │
        │      ▼                      ▼                      ▼        ▼                          │
        │ ┌───────────┐         ┌───────────┐          ┌────────────┐                            │
        │ │   VM.1    │         │   VM.2    │          │    VM.3    │                            │
        │ │  Router   ├─────-──►│ DataBase  │          │  DESLCtrl  │                            │
        │ │ (Ubuntu)  │         │ (Ubuntu)  │          │ (Win 10)   │                            │
        │ └───────────┘         └───────────┘          └────────────┘                            │
        │  192.168.1.56         192.168.1.58           192.168.1.59                              │
        │  128.179.34.35                                                                         │
        └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Component

Machine / Layer OS / Function Private IP Port Mapping Role
ESXi Host VMware ESXi 192.168.1.55 — Physical Dell Hypervisor host
VM.1 Router Ubuntu Linux 192.168.1.56 / .57 128.179.34.35 Firewall, traffic routing, DNAT port forwarding
VM.2 DataBase Ubuntu Linux 192.168.1.58 :52000 (InfluxDB)
:52100 (Grafana)		 Time-series data storage & monitoring dashboard
VM.3 DESLCtrl Windows 10 192.168.1.59 — Matlab / Labview control algorithm execution

Access

Internal Access (Local Microgrid Subnet)

  • Users connected to the DESL Microgrid Network (192.168.1.X) can directly target individual VM IPs via SSH or web browser without going through external translation.
  • ESXi Management Interface: https://192.168.1.55
    • username: root
    • password: Root442$1
  • DataBase VM Direct SSH: ssh <username>@192.168.1.58
    • username(Database VM): database
    • password: DESLDatabase

External Access (Public EPFL Network)

External access to internal resources is handled via Port Forwarding (DNAT) configured on VM.1 Router:

  • InfluxDB API: Incoming traffic to 128.179.34.35:52000 \(\rightarrow\) Forwarded internally to 192.168.1.58:8086
    • username: admin
    • password: DESLInfluxDB
  • Grafana Dashboard: Incoming traffic to 128.179.34.35:52100 \(\rightarrow\) Forwarded internally to 192.168.1.58:3000
    • username: admin
    • password: DESLGrafana2024$1

Operating Procedures

A. Accessing the DataBase VM via Web Console

  1. Connect to the local MG network.
  2. Open a web browser and navigate to https://192.168.1.55.
  3. Log in using the ESXi root credentials.
  4. Navigate to Virtual Machines \(\rightarrow\) VM.2 DataBase \(\rightarrow\) Console \(\rightarrow\) Launch Web Console.

B. Adding the Database VM Direct SSH Access

  1. Open the Database VM console or SSH session with admin rights.
ssh database@192.168.1.58
  1. Now you can execute Linux commands directly on the Database VM, such as:
  • checking InfluxDB status:
sudo systemctl status influxd
  • find PID of InfluxDB process:
ps aux | grep influxd
  • stop InfluxDB service:
sudo service influxd stop
  • restart InfluxDB service:
influxd

C. InfluxDB Troubleshooting & Restart Protocol

If InfluxDB fails or holds locked port instances:

  1. Connect to the DataBase VM (192.168.1.58).
  2. Stop any rogue or hanging background instances:
sudo service influxd stop
  1. Restart the service in the background cleanly:
sudo systemctl start influxd
# OR run directly in the background:
nohup influxd > /dev/null 2>&1 &
TipInfluxDB Crash Troubleshooting

The InfluxDB service may crash when a large query is executed, I doubt this is due to the limited RAM of the VM.

  • Until August 2026, the VM.2 DataBase is only allocated 4GB of RAM.
  • May manage memory limits using the influxd configuration options or environment variables, such as setting INFLUXD_QUERY_INITIAL_MEMORY_BYTES and INFLUXD_QUERY_MAX_MEMORY_BYTES to cap memory usage per query.

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