Virtual Switch limitations in ESX 3.5--What is the maximum number of VLANs a Vswitch can handle?

[pweinlein]

Thanks

[jayolsen]

Looks like 4096 from this

[ctfoster]

Since the vSwitch supports the 802.1Q specification I guess it's 4094. What setup do you expect to push this limit !

[pweinlein]

For some reason I thought I read it was a maximum of 32 port groups per Vswitch...was that the case in 3.0.2?

[Curdasss]

The maximum amount of VLAN's is 4069 as referenced earlier. The maximum number of ethernet ports are 32, physical.

[RenaudL]

Well, it actually depends on your setup. If you use Guest Tagging, then you can use as many VLANs as the specification authorizes it (i.e. 4094). With Virtual Switch Tagging, this is limited by the maximum number of portgroups you can create on a vswitch.

I can't recall the number, but it should be easy to find in our documentation.

[rpartmann]

Hi,

going with the config_max documents cou can have 4096 (0-4095) different vlan´s. But also the maximum of 512 portgroups per vSwitch applies.

So therefore you can only define 512 concurrent different VLAN IDs in your vSwitch/PortGroup configuration.

hth,

Reinhard

ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.

[jhanekom]

Since this is in the "strategy and planning" section, I thought I'd also point out that many lower-end physical switches impose significant limitations on the maximum number of VLANs they can handle concurrently. (While the range is usually 1-4094, you run into concurrency issues.)

If you're planning on running plenty VLANs, also check with your physical switch vendor how many they can handle concurrently.