NSX

NSX Home Lab Series – 6. VDS

Objective:

The goal is to migrate the existing home lab from a vSphere Standard Switch (VSS) to a vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) in preparation for an NSX deployment.

Plan:

Our existing home lab ESXi host has:

  • 4 pNICs
  • 2 pNICs, vmnic0 and vmnic1, are in use by VSS vSwitch0.
  • 2 pNICs, vmnic3 and vmnic4, are available to be used for a new VDS.
  • VCSA and Photon guests are connected to the VM Network on vSwitch0.
  • The ESXi host kernel interface vmk0 is connected to the VM Network on vSwitch0.
  • The goal is to create the VDS and to migrate the guest VMs and the kernel interface over to the VDS.

Create a Data Center:

Create a data center as a container for the lab environment inventory objects, name Datacenter.

Add Host to the Data Center:

Add ESXi host esxi1.lab.local to the data center object.

Here is an article I found helpful: in getting me started oj the remaining steps: Migrating from Standard to Distributed vSwitch.

Create a Distributed Switch:

In the vSphere Client Host and Clusters view, right-click a data center and select menu New Distributed Switch,

Create a Management Port Group:

A single default port group was created, but we will create one for the management network, named Management-PG.

Add Host to the VDS and Migrate:

Add ESXi host esxi1.lab.local to the VDS, and migrate the guest VMs and the kernel interface over to the VDS. This series of images runs through the deployment steps:

VDS Migration Complete:

After migration the guest VMs and the kernel interface are connected to the VDS, named Corp-VDS.

Conclusion:

At this point in the lab build-out we have migrated the existing home lab from a vSphere Standard Switch (VSS) to a vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) in preparation for an NSX deployment.

Notice after the migration that vmk0 and guest VM traffic are over pNICs vmnic2 and vmnic3.

[root@esxi1:~] esxtop

11:07:22pm up 4 days  9:44, 827 worlds, 2 VMs, 3 vCPUs; CPU load average: 0.03, 0.03, 0.03

   PORT-ID USED-BY                         TEAM-PNIC DNAME              PKTTX/s  MbTX/s   PSZTX    PKTRX/s  MbRX/s   PSZRX %DRPTX  
  67108870 Management                            n/a vSwitch0              0.00    0.00    0.00       0.00    0.00    0.00   0.00   
  67108872 Shadow of vmnic0                      n/a vSwitch0              0.00    0.00    0.00       0.00    0.00    0.00   0.00   
  67108874 Shadow of vmnic1                      n/a vSwitch0              0.00    0.00    0.00       0.00    0.00    0.00   0.00   
 100663356 Management                            n/a DvsPortset-0          0.00    0.00    0.00       0.00    0.00    0.00   0.00   
 100663357 vmk0                               vmnic2 DvsPortset-0          1.54    0.01  455.00       2.30    0.00  131.00   0.00   
 100663359 Shadow of vmnic3                      n/a DvsPortset-0          0.00    0.00    0.00       0.00    0.00    0.00   0.00   
 100663361 Shadow of vmnic2                      n/a DvsPortset-0          0.00    0.00    0.00       0.00    0.00    0.00   0.00    
 100663362 2101369:photon1.eth0               vmnic3 DvsPortset-0          0.00    0.00    0.00       3.45    0.00  143.00   0.00   
 100663363 2111521:vc1.eth0                   vmnic3 DvsPortset-0          0.38    0.00  198.00       3.84    0.00  166.00   0.00   
2214592519 vmnic0                                  - vSwitch0              0.00    0.00    0.00      11.71    0.04  436.00   0.00    
2214592521 vmnic1                                  - vSwitch0              0.00    0.00    0.00      11.71    0.04  436.00   0.00    
2248147006 vmnic3                                  - DvsPortset-0          0.00    0.00    0.00      11.71    0.04  436.00   0.00   
2248147008 vmnic2                                  - DvsPortset-0          1.15    0.00  482.00      12.09    0.04  424.00   0.00   

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