vSphere Distributed Switches

[VMMikeC]

I was going through my Mastering vSphere 5 book (great book btw) and was reading about dvswitches, so I decided to set them up in my home lab. Below is how my Standard vSwitch topology looked

vSwitch0  - 2 physical nics (uplinks) attached

     Management Network (vlan 2) - VMKernal (192.168.2.20)

     Port Group Prod (Servers) - Vlan 4

     Port Group Test (Servers) vlan 3

vSwitch1 - 1 Uplink attached

     NAS(iscsi) Port Group  (software iscsi) - VMKernal VLAN 3(192.168.3.16)

Everything worked great for vSwitch0, I migrated everything over with no issues..

My issues came with vSwitch1....when I tried to migrate the VMKernal, it told me since iSCSi was binded to the adapter, I had to go into Inventory - Networking and do it that way.....When I tried to go there, I received messages that it will not move physical adapters and if I choose to, I will connectivity.

I just could not figure out a way to properly migrate this vSwitch with iscsi over....Since it is my test lab, it's not big deal...I made an attempt to do that pretty much killed my host.....I had to go to the DCUI and reset my networking to get my host back.

Can anyone point me in the right direction on how to properly do this?

Also, are there any downsides to using dvswitches? I typically run my vCenter as a VM....so I'm not sure if there are any pros or cons to using dvswitches

Thanks,

Mike

[herseyc · Accepted solution]

Try this:

Put your host in maintenance mode and unbind the vmk from the Software iSCSI adapter.

Host -> Configuration -> Storage Adapters -> Properties -> Network Configuration and remove the vmk from the port binding.

Create a new portgroup on you vDS and edit the settings of it.  In teaming and failover make sure only the uplink you want to use for iSCSI is Active - move all other uplinks to Unused.

Migrate the vmk to the new portgroup.

Go back to the properties of the iSCSI adapter in Host -> Configuration -> Storage Adapters -> Properties -> Network Configuration and the vmk should be available to bind to the software iSCSI adapter.

Rescan storage.

If you have more than one vmk you are using for software iSCSI you will have to repeat the process.  Each vmk will have to be on a separate portgroup on the vDS and each portgroup will have to be bound to a separate uplink.  Similar to how you have to bind each vmk to a physical nic on a standard switch if you are using it for iSCSI.

Hope this helps.

Hersey

[VMMikeC]

you are AWESOME!.....thanks!

I started going that route yesterday, and thought, no no this is wrong (of course I missed the maintenance mode step).

Good to know I was kind of on the right path, but even better to know I was smart enough to ask.

I also took the uplink for iscsi and set it to unused for every other port group I have. I'm assuming thats right too

Appreciate the assistance!

[herseyc]

No problem.

I think the suggested practice is to not use the uplink you are using for storage for any other traffic, but I am not sure that you have to.  Really depends on your network and how you have thing segmented out.

Glad you got it working.

Hersey