VMware Cloud Community
gpalmer1981
Contributor
Contributor

Migrating from vSS to vDS switches. Issue with powering on VM's. VM hangs when either hot vMotion/Power on.

Hi All,

Came across a weird issue last week whilst attempting to migrate VM's from vSS to vDS.  Let me explain the topology:

3 x ESXi 6 hosts in an HR/DRS cluster (Enterprise Plus)

iSCSI storage on a NetApp FAS2240-2 filer

I first started by configuring the vDS switch.  I have 2 vDS switches configured.  One for iSCSI seperately and one for everything else.  These vDS switches are called "Core" and "iSCSI".  There are a number of dvPortgroups the Core.  These are all vlan tagged by selecting the vlan in the dvPortgroup and selecting the vlan id.  There are 6 uplinks on the Core vDS.  These uplinks will be connected to physical ports on a Juniper EX2200 switch.  The pnics are configured as trunk and have all the vlans associated to each port.  Each dvPortgroup is configured with "Route based oh physical nic load".  Since every port group can communicate on every uplink and pnic (because all the vlans are tagged, every dvPortgroup is teamed to every uplink.  I thought this was a good design.

So now for the problem.

1)     I first cleared out an ESXi host of VM's before making any configurations on the host.

2)     Then I join the host to the vDS and migrate the VMKernel port groups during the process.  This was successful.  Port groups migrated were the Management and vMotion.

3)     I then attempted to migrate VM's to the host which has joined the vDS switch.  This fails with the VM either timing out or hanging at 42% complete vMotion.

4)     I then try and remove the host from the cluster then try a cold vMotion.  This is successful but when trying to power on the VM it again hangs and does not power on.  Eventually it times out.

So I am struggling to see what the problem is here.  Any ideas would be humbly welcomed.  I have attached a screenshot of the environment to give you some idea.

Thanks

Reply
0 Kudos
2 Replies
Prakas
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I guess you are missing the migrate Virtual Machine networking in your steps. Refer this link - VMware vSphere 5.1.

Prakas
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Just to add more info, your step 1 has no effect in vDS movement process. So just keep the VMs running in host and proceed. Once your step 2 is complete, create a VM portgroup with identical name as in standard vSwitch. Now use 'Migrate Virtual Machine networking' option under Networking to move the VMs from standard to vDS.

Reply
0 Kudos