Iperf3 on ESXi 8 “Operation not permitted” Error Message

Iperf3 is used to test network performance between ESXi hosts or between an ESXi host and another device running iperf3. Earlier we could simply copy the iperf3 file to a new file like iperf3.copy and run that, but this no longer work in ESXi 8 due to security being hardened.

Here is a way to still be able to use iperf3 in ESXi 8. ESXi shell command to run on the host acting as the iperf3 server:

esxcli network firewall set --enabled false
localcli system settings advanced set -o /User/execInstalledOnly -i 0

cp /usr/lib/vmware/vsan/bin/iperf3 /usr/lib/vmware/vsan/bin/iperf3.copy
/usr/lib/vmware/vsan/bin/iperf3.copy -s -B 192.168.0.10

localcli system settings advanced set -o /User/execInstalledOnly -i 1
esxcli network firewall set --enabled true

ESXi shell commands to run on the host acting as the iperf3 client:

esxcli network firewall set --enabled false
localcli system settings advanced set -o /User/execInstalledOnly -i 0

cp /usr/lib/vmware/vsan/bin/iperf3 /usr/lib/vmware/vsan/bin/iperf3.copy
/usr/lib/vmware/vsan/bin/iperf3.copy -i 1 -t 10 -c 192.168.0.50

localcli system settings advanced set -o /User/execInstalledOnly -i 1
esxcli network firewall set --enabled true