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mobinqasim786
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VMs in ESX can't choose different Network Label/Name (VLAN)

Hi Guys,

My test vCenter crashed and I can't recover it as there was no backup. I can only connect directly to ESXi servers and use VMs from there. Now I'm facing an issue while deploying a new VM and changing it's network. I've a vDistributed Switch  configured which has 2 port groups VLAN 10 and VLAN 30. When I create a new VM, it only let me choose VLAN 30 and doesn't  let me choose VLAN 10 while there are few old VMs which are still configured to VLAN 10 and  I can change their NIC to VLAN 30. What changes do I need to make in order to configure VLAN 10 on my new VMs?

I've 2 ESXi servers and it's the same case on both ESXi servers.

Please find the attachment.

Any help would be appreciated.

Kind Regards

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bayupw
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Hi

The default Port Binding type is Static Binding which means you can connect a virtual machine to a static-binding port group only through vCenter Server.

My guess, the VLAN 10 port group is created with Static Binding.

VMware KB: Choosing a port binding type in ESX/ESXi

If you do not have port group with Ephemeral binding, you cannot connect a new VM to VDS if your vCenter is down.

With Ephemeral port binding, you can assign a virtual machine to a distributed port group on ESX/ESXi and vCenter, giving you the flexibility to manage virtual machine connections through the host when vCenter is down.

In this case, you would need to temporarily create a new vSwitch directly on a host with VLAN 10 for connecting the new VM.

More about ephemeral port binding:

VMware vSphere Distributed Switch allows management of ephemeral ports while vCenter is offline | VC...

http://www.ecloudsol.com/blog/distributed-switch-port-binding-in-vmware-vsphere-5-0/

Lost vcenter with ESXi host and cannot power on with vDS | Virtual Me

Bayu Wibowo | VCIX6-DCV/NV
Author of VMware NSX Cookbook http://bit.ly/NSXCookbook
https://github.com/bayupw/PowerNSX-Scripts
https://nz.linkedin.com/in/bayupw | twitter @bayupw

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bayupw
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Hi

The default Port Binding type is Static Binding which means you can connect a virtual machine to a static-binding port group only through vCenter Server.

My guess, the VLAN 10 port group is created with Static Binding.

VMware KB: Choosing a port binding type in ESX/ESXi

If you do not have port group with Ephemeral binding, you cannot connect a new VM to VDS if your vCenter is down.

With Ephemeral port binding, you can assign a virtual machine to a distributed port group on ESX/ESXi and vCenter, giving you the flexibility to manage virtual machine connections through the host when vCenter is down.

In this case, you would need to temporarily create a new vSwitch directly on a host with VLAN 10 for connecting the new VM.

More about ephemeral port binding:

VMware vSphere Distributed Switch allows management of ephemeral ports while vCenter is offline | VC...

http://www.ecloudsol.com/blog/distributed-switch-port-binding-in-vmware-vsphere-5-0/

Lost vcenter with ESXi host and cannot power on with vDS | Virtual Me

Bayu Wibowo | VCIX6-DCV/NV
Author of VMware NSX Cookbook http://bit.ly/NSXCookbook
https://github.com/bayupw/PowerNSX-Scripts
https://nz.linkedin.com/in/bayupw | twitter @bayupw
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mobinqasim786
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Hi Bayu,

Unfortunately, I had to create a temporary Standard Switch for VLAN 10 as my vCenter was crashed and that worked for me. Now I've deployed a new vCenter Server and added my hosts in it. But under Networking it's giving me the following error:

"The host proxy switch associated to dvswitch no longer exists"

Do I have to create a new vDS from scratch or is there some work around to keep the existing vDS back?

Regards.

bayupw
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Hi

Which vCenter & ESX/ESXi version are you using?
If you are using vCenter 5.1+, do you have backup of your VDS configuration?
If you do, you can restore the VDS from backup and add again the hosts.

If you don't, you will need to create new VDS and add the hosts to VDS.

You will need to follow the procedure described in these KB articles:

VMware KB: Removing an ESX/ESXi host configured with a vDS from a vCenter Server system results in i...

VMware KB: "Invalid backing" error on a virtual machine NIC

Bayu Wibowo | VCIX6-DCV/NV
Author of VMware NSX Cookbook http://bit.ly/NSXCookbook
https://github.com/bayupw/PowerNSX-Scripts
https://nz.linkedin.com/in/bayupw | twitter @bayupw
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mobinqasim786
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Bayu, I'm using vCenter & ESXi 5.1. I can still see vDS if I connect directly to any ESXi hosts, but I'm getting the above mentioned error when I connect to the newly built vCenter. I was wondering if there is any way I can get that vDS from ESXi hosts to vCenter. And at the moment only one ESX host has temporary

Standard Switch for VLAN 10 where I've configured vCenter Server. If I'll have to create a new vDS in vCenter, would I have to create temp Standard Switch for all ESXi hosts?

Regards

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