vSphere vNetwork Distributed Switch vDS Configuration

One of the new features of vSphere is the vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS). Basically vDS allows you to create, manage, and provision your virtual network across all of your vSphere hosts in vCenter. vDS is available under the Enterprise Plus license.

Here is how I set up my vDS. I basically used the 3 host configuration example in What’s New in VMware vSphere 4: Virtual Networking white paper as a guide.

First I created a new vNetwork Distributed Switch in Inventory->Networking.

I configured it for 8 dvUplink ports. Why 8? Well I have 8 NICs in each of my host, and I would like to be able to use and manage all eight of them across one vDS.

I added each of my host to the vDS but did not add any physical adapters yet.

After the new vDS is created I created my port groups. One port group for the Service Console, one for vmotion, and one for each of my production VLANs.

When creating these port groups I just used the defaults except for changing the VLANs where needed.

Now that I have my vDS set up, time to migrate the host networks to the new switch. In Inventory->Hosts and Clusters select the host Configuration tab then Networking and the Distributed Virtual Switch button.

First i migrated the Virtual Machine networks to the new vDS. I took one NIC out of the port channel on the physical switch and added that physical NICs to the vDS. I did this for each of my hosts.

Then I use the Migrate Virtual Machine Networking wizard to move all of my VMs from the vSwitch port groups to the new vDS.

After this is done I add the rest of the physical NICs associated with my VM network to the vDS and recreate the port channel on the physical switch.

Now on to the vmkernel ports. I used the Manage Virtual Adapters wizard to migrate my VMotion VMKernel adapter to the new vDS.

I then did the same to my service console. Before I started making changes to the Service Console I put the host in maintenance mode. I created a new service console with a new IP address on the same subnet on my management port group and made sure I had connectivitiy (OK I did not do this the first time, messed up and lost the Service Console connectivity to my host – had to go CLI to fix it, but that is a completely different multi-page post in itself – very thankful for the spare NIC I have in each host).

Since my vMotion vmkernel port and Service Console are now on the vDS I attached their physical NICs to the new vDS and then added them to the port channel on the physical switch.

The only issue I had was with the iSCSI vmkernel ports. I was not able to get them to work on the vDS so they are still configured on a vSwitch on each hosts.

Not sure why I could not get it to work, but I will tackle that another day.

After I verified everything works, I deleted the old Virtual Switches from each host.

Just a quick overview of how I set up my vDS. Hope you find it helpful.

TGIF!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!

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