Mgmt connection on vDS?

[JaySMX]

I'm about to tackle my first ESXi deployment, without having a host to test with at the moment I couldn't verify this myself so...probably an easy question.

Once you setup the Managment Network from the console and connect via vCenter, can you create a new Management Network connection on a vDS and remove the original, leaving only the vDS Management Network connection? You can do this with ESX, I'm just not sure if there is any difference when using ESXi.

What are you all's recommendations for using a vDS for the Management connection instead of a standard vSwitch? (and for NFS/iSCSI, for that matter) Good? Bad? Indifferent?

Thanks!

[gary1012]

Depends on who you talk to about management on vDS. Some would argue that if you lose vCenter, then you lose control over the vDS so it would be best to place the COS or SC on a standard vSS. If you have a Cisco Nexus, the recommendations have been varied over the past few months but I'm now seeing more consistency from VMware and Cisco in that they recommend running everything over the N1K including the COS. This is because they have the ability to assign "system VLANs" to the COS to pass "opaque" traffic even if vCenter is down. I don't think that is possible with a standard vDS though.

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[JaySMX]

Thanks for the reply, it sounds like you are confirming my initial thoughts about having the mgmt connection configured on a vDS. Would you happen to know how vDS's behave in the event that you lose vCenter and then add the host to a new vCenter instance?