ESXi

Hi,

Is it okay to rename a port group on a standard vSwitch?

Thanks

I would live on the cautious side and say not with VMs running on it. The easier method might be to make a new portgroup with the correct name and move your VMs over to it, don't forget to make the portgorup on all of your hosts in the cluster and always remember that its case sensitive.

I'm pretty sure I've done this before with no issues.  Keep in mind that if DRS is enabled, you're going to have problems until the same portgroup name is used on each host in the cluster.  I'd recommend disabling DRS, renaming the portgroup on each host, and then re-enable DRS. 

You could always create a new portgroup, put a few test VMs in it, setup consistent pings and then rename the portgroup... as long as you're not changing anything like the vlan ID or anything, it shouldn't cause any issues. 

Good luck!

I don't have access to an environment to test this at the moment. However, from what I remember, changing a port group's name on a Standard vSwitch will immediately disconnect the VMs. Doing the same with a port group on a Distributed Switch is supposed to be non-disruptive.

André

Just tested this in my lab, renaming the port group did not cause a drop in connectivity. 

If you're changing which portgroup a VM is using, yes there is a drop in connectivity, but not to rename the portgroup itself.

If the VM then reboots does it not have connectivity because the information in the .vmx no longer matches the info in vCenter? The connectivity drop when changing port groups is momentary correct? like 1 ping?

when i renamed the portgroup, there was no drop.. but now that I look deeper, you're correct, the portgroup comes up as grayed out & (inactive) so if you power cycle/reboot it doesn't reconnect... 

I know I did this a few times in my 3.5 or 4.0 environments back in the day with no problem, but it seems in 5.5, they come up as inactive, but it's been quite some time since I tried this. 

I know if you rename a PG in vDS, there are no issues, but that's more of a change managed by vCenter where vSS is managed by the host...

I stand corrected.