Port Group physical vs. virtual ?

[Nicodemus]

Schduled to take VCP in two days... and I really need so help understanding the maximum number of port groups as described in the Configuration Maximum pdf...

What is the difference between the advanced traits port groups = 512 and the virtual NICs port groups = 4069 ? Is the physical refering to the ESX Host or what? What does this 'advanced physical traits' mean? ( See blue high-lighted or the attached screen cap jpg)*

Advanced, physical traits

*

Number of port groups 512

Virtual NICs/switches/VLANs

Number of virtual switches 127 <<< 248 ?!

Number of port groups (VLANs) 4069

Help please, - Nicodemus

[MR-T]

Hi,

The maximum number of port groups (512) is the number you can create on a single ESX server. If you have a single virtual switch, I believe you could pottentially create 512 port groups beneath this.

The maximum number of virtual switches you can create is 127 according to this information, where are you getting 248 from.

The number of port groups (VLANS) 4069 describes the number range which is available for VLANS. So from 0 - 4096. This is a standard and if you google on '4096 VLANS' you'll see what I mean.

Normally the low end number is reserved.

I hope this explains everything.

[Nicodemus]

OK.. so I get this straight... the ESX Host can have a total of 512 port groups, but each Vswitch has the possibility of 4069 ( not 4096, due to reserved addresses?)

And I got the the maximum number of virtual switches you can create = 248 from the ESX Datasheet.. it was mentioned here on the forum and check it myself.

Any feedback or error correction is appreciated, - Nicodemus

[MattG]

Did you ever get this issue answered? I am confused as well.

-MattG

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[AndreTheGiant]

For this number the only useful guide is the official one:

Configuration Maximums for VMware Infrastructure 3

Andre

**if you found this or any other answer useful please consider allocating points for helpful or correct answers

[kjb007]

The number of VLANs is not a function of portgroups or vSwitches. In 802.1q VLAN tagging, you can only assign VLAN IDs from 0-4095. Where 0 is no VLAN ID, and 4095 is all VLAN IDs (creating a VLAN tunnel, where the OS itself will tag which VLAN at the vNIC level), and numbers in the middle are for specific VLANs that can be assigned to a portgroup. Of which, you can have 512 of on a system, over a maximum of 127 vSwitches.

-KjB

VMware vExpert

[LyleRyan]

In preparing for my 3.5 VCP exam, I was confused by this too.

It's now clear to me that the range of VLAN IDs encompases 4096 possibilities. But the Configuration Maximum for 3.5 of "Number of port groups (VLANs) = 4096" is still unclear.

A port group doesn't have to be in a VLAN (if I'm correct) so the range of VLAN IDs doesn't seem to fully explain things here.

Also, on page 65 of "Mastering VMware Infrastructure 3", McCain says, in part:

• An ESX Server host cannot have more than 4096 ports

• An ESX Server host cannot have more than 512 virtual switch port groups

• "Because ESX Server hosts cannot have more than 4,096 ports....(be careful creating vSwitches with 1016 ports)"

Could the Configuration Maximum be saying both things? The range of valid VLAN IDs has 4096 possibilities and each host can not have any more than 4096 ports?

Thanks for any advice on this....Lyle