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HendersonD
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

vSwitchUSB0 and pnic vusb0 ?

I have some new IBM servers with ESXi 5 installed. I have just started setting these up and only have two nics attached for the management network. In the vCenter interface I am seeing the management network but I am also seeing a vSwitchUSB0 attached to a nic named vusb0. I think this is the inband management network on these blades. Below is what I am seeing:

Network.png

What is weird is I can remove vSwitchUSB0 and 30 seconds later it comes right back! Is there some way to make this go away? Perhaps something to disable in BIOS? I can certainly leave it, it is just unsightly.

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chriswahl
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

This has been brought up a few times in the forums.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1736555

The post here gives some more details onto how to remove it properly. It's in French, but most browsers (Chrome) can translate.

http://www.hypervisor.fr/?p=2042

From the article:

You might therefore want to disable this feature for security (via the WMA frame for example):

http://hypervisor.free.fr/img/UoE.jpg

VCDX #104 (DCV, NV) ஃ WahlNetwork.com ஃ @ChrisWahl ஃ Author, Networking for VMware Administrators
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HendersonD
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Thanks. I did disable one of the Ethernet over USB Interfaces using the IBM Advanced Management Module and then deleted vSwitchUSB0. This did the trick and it did not show up again. I did read the full article and found out that firmware updates on a blade cannot be performed unless this interface is enabled. I may just leave it enabled and live with this vSwitch in the vCenter configuration.

Is there any way to block this on the ESXi side so I can have the best of both worlds, the vSwitch disappears out of the interface but I can still easily update the firmware on a blade?

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DeanRavenscroft
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

Yes this is over a year later but its very handy for reference.

Please see this IBM document to explain options around the firmware updates. It only restricts inband updates.

IBM Why does my VMware esxi 5.x host have standard virtual switch vSwitchUSB0 with VMkernel port gro...

So you can still disable it and be able to update.

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