No network connectivity after moving VMs to dvSwitch

[Wasisnt]

I have a small lab with 2 ESX servers using local storage only and I was playing around with making a dvSwitch which worked fine. Then I moved all my VMs to the dvSwitch port group and lost my network connectivity including my vCenter Server which is a VM. I was able to log into the ESX hosts locally and change it back to the standard VM Network connection and get things working. Would it have anything to do with not using shared storage? Im still in the learning process so Im not sure what is going on.

[Wasisnt]

I thought maybe it had to do with the management network not being on the dvSwitch so I moved that there and now I cant even connect to the host. I cant ping it or get in with SSH etc either. The vCenter server is still on the standard VM Network connection. I also went into the server console and tried the Restore Standard Switch option which didnt help.

[MindTheGreg]

You are in luck. There is a KB on this exact issue:

Post-4.0u2

Configuring or restoring networking from the ESX service console using console-setup

Pre-4.0u2

Recreating Service Console networking from the command line

[a_p_]

Did you already double check the uplinks connected to the dvSwitch are connected properly (have a link) and - in case of a managed switch - the physical ports are configured properly?

André

[Wasisnt]

I cant get into the console to try any commands and am not sure about checking the uplinks but here is a screenshot of my configuration. Do you need to do anything special on the physical switch to use a dvSwitch?

[Wasisnt]

Actually I was able to get in through unsupported mode but it says console-setup not found from the info from your first link. Im not sure what commands I should be using to do what since it appears the networking setup is correct judging from the yellow/black console under networking.

[MindTheGreg]

I think that command only works on ESX and not ESXi. I thought you were using ESX, sorry.

[Wasisnt]

I also tried this command assuming I know what Im doing to try and associate vmnic1 back to vSwitch0

esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic vSwitch0

and got the following results

"Virtual Switch" warning. Unable to add uplink vmnic1. Sysinfo error on operation retured status: Busy. Please see the VMkernel log for detailed information.

Failed to add uplink vmnic1 to vswitch vSwitch0, Error: Sysinfo error on operation returned status: Busy. Please see the VMkernel log for detailed information.

I also noticed that vmnic0 is already associated with vSwitch0 but I dont know why I cant connect to the ESX host at all.

Here is the output of esxcfg-vswitch -l

[Wasisnt]

I think I got it. I went into the console (yellow screen) and then went to network adapters and assigned the default management network connection back to vmnic0 and now I can connect.

What is the best way to setup a dvSwitch and keep the connection? Should I move the management network first and then the VMs if vCenter is one of the VMs?

From what I have read it seems like the dvSwitch needs shared storage to work properly so Im assuming thats my problem.

[MindTheGreg]

Move the management network last. You need to make sure it always works because it is so important. If you can, you want it separate from other networks also.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

[MindTheGreg]

Our production environment uses vSwitches for our management network. Our VM network is on dvSwitches. To modify a dvSwitch, vCenter must be up. There are pros and cons to whatever networking type you choose. For us the management network is set once and not changed, so the flexibility of dvSwitches is not necessary. The VM network changes more often so dvSwitches make sense.