To configure the keepalive time for a serial port connection, set the

keepIdle

advanced option for the virtual machine. The option name uses the following format:

n

is an integer in a sequence starting with zero, corresponding to the sequence of serial ports on the virtual machine. Examples of

keepIdle

options include

serial0.keepIdle

,

serial1.keepIdle

, and

serial2.keepIdle

.

The

keepIdle

value is the duration in seconds on an idle connection, after which the ESX Server sends up to five keepalive probes to the virtual serial port proxy. If there is no response after five probes, the connection is considered inactive. The Server uses a keepalive interval of 1/100th of the

keepIdle

value, and a retry value of five. Using the default

keepIdle

value (300 seconds), the Server will detect a proxy failure no later than 315 seconds after the last activity (300 + 5*300/100).