Add 2nd NIC as independent port on vSwitch on ESXi 6.7

[FrancisAugusto]

Hi,

I have a motherboard - Supermicro - with lots of NIC's. Currently, I have one of my VM's connected to a vSwitch, which has a physical adapter assigned to it.

However, I want to connect a computer to this machine via one of its NIC's and I want it to join this vSwitch. I know it is possible to add another nic as an uplink. But is it possible to add another nic so that other machines could be part of the same vSwitch?

In short, I want to add another nic as just another port on this vSwitch so other machines can be part of it.

Any tips on how to do it?

Best,

Francis

[daphnissov]

Not understanding what you're asking. A physical nic (vmnic) is an uplink on a virtual switch. You have access regardless of how man other vmnics are also uplinks.

[FrancisAugusto]

I have a dhcp on the first NIC. My VM’s get their IP addresses normally.

i have another NIC. I want to connect it to the vswitch so that I can connect another conputer to this vswitch and to the VMs using it, as well as to the network of the the first NIC. i want it to get its IP address from the dhcp server that can be reached by the first nic.

[daphnissov]

vmnics as uplinks on virtual switches for use by virtual machines do not get IP addresses themselves. You can connect many VMs to the same vswitch regardless of how many uplinks that vswitch has. As a best practice, every uplink you add to the same virtual switch should be of the same type and access characteristics.

[NathanosBlightc]

I have a dhcp on the first NIC

You cannot assign IP address to the VMNICs because they act as the Uplink ports between the vSwitch and pSwitch.

My VM’s get their IP addresses normally.

vSwitch Uplink is just related to Trunking virtual network to the physical world. Connected VMs to the vSwitch can receive / transfer DHCP packets from / to a physical DHCP Server whenever there is a connected Uplink.

as well as to the network of the the first NIC.

By default adding a secondary Uplink to the vSwitch provides Load-Balancing / Failover for your vSwitch connectives

[FrancisAugusto]

So is that so that it is simply not possible to add a second nic that could be treated as another port (ie., like the VM's), instead of being another uplink?

[FrancisAugusto]

daphnissov​ I don't want another uplink - I just would like to add another NIC as another port on the vSwitch - not uplink.

[NathanosBlightc]

Hi again

Please make difference in your mind between these two concepts:

1. Adding more Physical NIC to the vSwitch just provides Physical-Level of Load-Balancing / Failover in that vSwitch and its associated port group. P-NIC always acts as the Uplink and is NOT related to the VM itself!

2. Adding more Virtual NIC to the VM will allow network traffic generated by that VM transmits with more network interface (or connect to different port group) and create a little Virtual-Level of LB/FO on the VM guest OS, nothing more!

[wsiegmund · Accepted solution]

Hi Francis,

this is correct.  The vswitch is not designed to switch packets

between its uplinks.  Any packet entering an uplink will be

directed to virtual machines and will never ever come out

at another uplink again.  This allows us to run several

cables in parallel to a physical switch without the risk

of packet loops or broacast storms.  Spanning Tree is not

needed and is not present in a vswitch.

So if we connect two computers to two uplink ports

of a vswitch they will not be able to communicate.

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[FrancisAugusto]

Thanks wsiegmund​. It was that kind of clarity I was hoping for.