ESXi 5.5 host can be part of two VDS?

[VMVI]

Hi

  I have a situation that, i have a two esxi5.5 host(1,2) part of cluster1 and two esxi 5.5 host(3,4) part of cluster2  all the 4 hosts are under same vcenter 5.5. The hosts 1(four nics),2(four nics) are part of VDS1 (vsphere distributed switch)and hots 3(four nics),4(four nics) are part of VDS2(vsphere distributed switch). Each hosts is having 4 nics all nics are mapped to VDS(vsphere distributed switch) as uplinks.

I am looking help for

1:-how to migrate the VM's from one VDS1(hosts1,2) to VDS2(hosts3,4)as the hosts connected to different VDS.

2:- As i tried to migrate the VM's from one VDS1 to another, as the hosts are not part of the same VDS, the VM's are unable to move.  How to connect the hosts1,2 to VDS2 and hosts3,4 to VDS1.?

(attached the same info in picture).

Thank you in-advance for your help.

[rcporto]

According with vSphere configuration maximums, a host can have 16 distributed switches, so you may can remove a uplink from your current VDS, create a new temp VDS and add hosts from both clusters to that VDS. After both cluster have access to the same VDS, move the virtual machines to that VDS, then move the virtual machines to the different cluster, move back the virtual machines to the non-temp VDS... and after finish all migrations, delete the temp VDS and move back the uplink to the non-temp VDS.

[VMVI]

Hi,

  Thank you for reply.

     I have a couple of questions:-

   "remove a uplink from your current VDS, create a new temp VDS"

1:- Do i have to create a Temp vmkernel port-group on Temp VDS or Just  VM network port-group on temp VDS with same name as the current VDS?

2:- While doing this will be there any packet loss/packet drop?

[rcporto]

1:- Do i have to create a Temp vmkernel port-group on Temp VDS or Just  VM network port-group on temp VDS with same name as the current VDS?

Just VM port group, since you will only migrate virtual machine and not VMkernel adapters. About the name, I think a better approach will give a different name, BUT using the same VLAN.

2:- While doing this will be there any packet loss/packet drop?

Almost nothing, if you keep pining your virtual machine you will may notice 1 ping lost, but that is due the MAC moving from one physical adapter to another, which is acceptable.

[VMVI]

Hi

  Thank you for the quick reply. I appreciate your help.