Export & Import PortGroups

[Davmar]

Hi,

We got 3 ESX, the 3rd we just got up and running. And now i have been put on the task of migrating the PortGroups from the exsisting ESX's to the new one. I have never tuched the internal configs of the ESX. NIC or the Virtual switches. so what I need is a small point in the right direction, and maybe some one know if there is a easy way or doing this automatic?

i have found the current setup via esx01 => configuration pane => Networking

Regards

Marius Davidsen

ICT-Apprentice

[lamw · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You have a few options:

1) Get the current vSwitch configuration from the console and just use the standard esxcfg-vswitch to re-create your portgroup configuration {esxcfg-vswitch -l will list your configuration} and if you know how to create shell scripts, you can actually automate this process and save the portgroup label + VLAN ID's to an array and when you need to modify/create, you can just run a small bash script.

2) You manually look at the GUI and re-create it by looking at your current ESX Servers

3) You can use this tool to create vswitch/portgroup across multiple ESX Servers: http://www.run-virtual.com/?p=159

4) You can also use the internal vimsh (3.x) / vmware-vim-cmd (3.5) to export the vswitch configuration to a file and then you import it back into an existing ESX Server

Save Configuration to file:

vimsh -n -e "vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/config_save <filename>"

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/net/config_save <filename>"

Load Configuration from file:

vimsh -n -e "vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/config_load <filename>"

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/net/config_load <filename>"

Option 2/3 will be eaiest if you do not feel comfortable within the ESX Console, this requires a level of understanding of the default ESX commands.

[Davmar]

Thanks alot!

I've started to manualy transport them now, and its working fine:)

I will start looking into the ESX console soon, as im working more and more with the VC and ESX's. This is a very exciting subjet, and I can bearly wait to work even more with it!

ps

Doing it the "hard" way and using option 2)