Can VM Port Group migrate to from one vSwitch to another vSwitch?

[air-wolf]

Can VM Port Group from 1 vSwitch automatic migrate to another vSwitch if the nic went down on the vSwitch?

let say:

vSwitch1 have 2 vmnic and have VM Port Group call "production Network"

vSwitch2 have 1 vmnic and have VM Port Group call "DevNetwork"

if both physical vmnic on vSwitch1 are down, is there a way VM Port Group call "production Network" migrate to vSwitch2 automatically?.

The technician from vmware say yes. He said that on vSwitch1 select the vmnic of vSwitch2 as standby and on vSwitch2 select vSwitch1 vmnic as standby. That way if either vSwitch happen to be down the vm will continue to run without lost of network connectivity because the VM Port Group will automatically put on the other vSwitchx.

I cannot find a way to put the vmnic of the other vSwith on standby at all unless I'm missing some steps...

[peterdabr]

Hi,

Port Groups cannot automatically migrate between vswitches. Also, vmnic cannot be shared between two vswitches, hence what you were told is not doable...unless you misuderstood vmware  tech's recommendation.

If 3 vmnic is the most that you can have on the host then I recommend combining vswitch1 & 2 into a single switch with 3 uplinks.

This way you'll have more redundancy for all of your portgroups and flexibility in manually setting up NIC teaming on a portgroup basis.

Please feel free to ask questions if you need me to further elaborate on above.

Peter D.

[admin]

I'd also consider not using vLAN ID 1 maybe your configured as access port and implementing a new vLAN for the other network.  I agree with the 3 pNICs in one vSwitch and setup active passive and spare maybe..

[rickardnobel]

Jim wrote:

The technician from vmware say yes. He said that on vSwitch1 select the vmnic of vSwitch2 as standby and on vSwitch2 select vSwitch1 vmnic as standby. That way if either vSwitch happen to be down the vm will continue to run without lost of network connectivity because the VM Port Group will automatically put on the other vSwitchx.

This is very incorrect, very strange if a VMware technician told you this. As has been noted above, it is very possible to get this kind of redundancy, but that involves using only one vSwitch and make the vmnics all be attached to that. With active/standby vmnic settings for each portgroup you could also have the traffic separated during "normal" operations, but be available in case of failure.

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

No not possible ,But with Distributed Switch you can create identical PGs across your ESX hosts

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

Kindly refer to the below link for Port group migraiton in Distributed vSwitch

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere-vnetwork-ds-migration-configuration-wp.pdf

[RanjnaAggarwal]

it's not possible...i think you misinterpret the team recommendation

[rickardnobel]

Umesh wrote:

But with Distributed Switch you can create identical PGs across your ESX hosts

Identical portgroups across hosts was not the issue here, besides in the Distributed vSwitch there is logically only one portgroup - which is accessable from all connected ESXi hosts.

[air-wolf]

thanks all that is what I need to confirm. it cannot be done with standard switch unless it is a distributed switch..

the guy told me to sepreate the vSwitch by combine console and vMotion to 1 vSwitch with one Nic and create a second vSwith with 2 nics for my vms with all my vlan port group.

I told him that take away reducency but he stated that put the other nic from the other vSwitch as standby and do the same to the other one then vm port groups will roll over to the vSwith that is not fail.

I should have know that it cannot be done and that everytime i ask a question he put me on hold and ran to someone else for answer then get back to me.

[rickardnobel]

Jim wrote:

it cannot be done with standard switch unless it is a distributed switch..

Actually it can't be done with a Distributed vSwitch either. No vmnic could leave its vSwitch (standard or distributed) and join another vSwitch by itself.

[air-wolf]

I mean the port group name exist in ds switch. I know pnic cannot assign in more than one vswith

Regards,

Sent from my iPhone

[jl3128]

vm05:~ # for i in `seq 221 235`; do esxcfg-vswitch -D vlan$i vSwitch0; done;

vm05:~ # for i in `seq 221 235`; do esxcfg-vswitch -A vlan$i vSwitch1; done;

vm05:~ # for i in `seq 221 235`; do esxcfg-vswitch -p vlan$i -v $i vSwitch1; done;