Distributed Virtual Switch & VCenter Appliance

[lions1855]

Hi,

I am sort of new with the dvs (distributed virtual switch) technology. There is some information that talks about the different types of configurations. But, I don't see anything that talks about what is the best configuration for connecting my vcenter appliance to one of my distributed virtual switch. Last time I made this attempt, the vcenter loss communication and I had to remote into the exsi host and immediatly move the vcenter network connection to a standard switch.

If anyone could provide me with some suggestions on how to accomplish this goal.

Thanks

[SureshKumarMuth]

Like any other virtual machine, you have to just change the portgroup of your vCenter vnic to distributed switch portgroup from standard switch portgroup , provided you have all the connectivity in place in the distributed switch (vmnic to pass the traffic, proper vlan configuration in the portgroup etc). If you have lost your vCenter connectivity when you moved your VM from standard switch to distributed switch then there is some issue with your distributed switch portgroup where it cannot pass the traffic.

If you provide some more details about your configuration with screenshots, I can check and help you out.

[lions1855]

Hi, The issue is more or less with the configuration of the dvswitch. I have attached two pictures. The first one (vcenter-01) is the original dvswitch (static binding) and all vdis sharing the same subnet are able to use this dvswitch without no issues. However,on the second picture (vcenter-02) shows another dvswitch using the ephemeral - no binding and it is working. I just don't understand why vcenter does not like the first dvswitch and it works with the second one.

[NathanosBlightc]

Hi

It seems they are two dvPortGroup not exactly two different dvswitch! and both of these dvPortGroup belong and related to a dvsiwtch name dswitch-mgmt. To work with your VDS in your vSphere environment, after creating the VDS you must run three main operations:

1. Make the vdUplink portgroup based on required uplinks for your hosts and map them to the VDS ( remove from VSS). Remember to not losing your network connectivity, so you need to have redundant uplink connections on the ESXi, Otherwise you should run this step and the next mentioned operations in a same VSS to VDS migration wizard

2. Create a dedicate dvportgroup for host management and Migrate the VMKernel ports of each host to these new port group of your VDS.

3. Create other dvportgroups based on virtual machines networking requirements and migrate their connectives (vNICs) to the VDS's portgroup

But about ephermeral portgroup you should know its definition by VMware:

In a port group configured with ephemeral binding, a port is created and assigned to a virtual machine by the host when the virtual machine is powered on and its NIC is in a connected state. When the virtual machine powers off or the NIC of the virtual machine is disconnected, the port is deleted.

[mguidini]

Two options so you don't lose access to your vCenter VM again:

1 - Use a Standard Switch and Portgroup to connect your vCenter VM. (Preferable if you keep your entire management network over Standard Switches)

2 - Use your Distributed Switch and create an ephemeral dvPortgroup to connect your vCenter VM. (You can actually see and select an ephemeral portgroup to connect a VM via ESXi host client, just like a Standard portgroup)

Good luck buddy,