Network Adapters and VLAN (optional) greyed out in DCUI

[tinglyfox]

I am studying for my VCP exam and I am using a nested setup in Workstation. Suddenly I don't have access to the network adapters in the DCUI. I have migrated both NICs used for management to a vmkernel management port group in a distributed switch.

Does someone know what is going on here? Google gave me this hint

But in my case the hosts are still connected to vCenter and are working fine no issues anywhere.

[rcporto · Accepted solution]

Since you migrate your management VMkernel to vDS, all virtual switch tasks, including configuration of VMkernel managament interfaces/VLANs must be done on vDS and not on ESXi.

[tinglyfox]

Thank you Richardson!

[hegdec]

That perfectly makes sense.

But, what if we want to get the control by force from the vDS? In our case, we have the host switch being managed by vDS. We skipped the process of removing the host from vDS before removing it from the inventory. Unfortunately the vCenter too is now decommissioned and hence cannot add it back and follow the right process.

In such case, is there any way to remove the stale entry in the ESXi and get the control to modify the management vmkernel port forcefully?(!)

[myxyz123]

Hello,

I've had the same issue and was able to restore the interface with the following command on the ESXi shell:

esxcli network vswitch standard add -v vSwitch0

esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add -p 'Management Network' -v vSwitch0

esxcli network ip interface add -i vmk0 -p 'Management Network'

After that, I was able to restore vmk0 config.

[grantcurell]

I was super confused by this. I changed a VLAN and these options became grayed out without further explanation. I had to go to:

Network Restore Options -> Restore vDS

Then I reset to default.

[ESXi_Since_3_5]

I believe since 6.7c they have allowed you the option to "reset" your virtual switch settings. I have since upgraded to 7.0c and I know it's there. But if there is an networking issue there is an option to reset it back to a standard or fix the vDS. it has worked perfectly every time I've used it.