To register vSphere port groups for VMware Cloud Director to use, add a network pool backed by port groups. Unlike other types of network pools, a port group-backed network pool does not require a vSphere distributed switch and can support port groups associated with third-party distributed switches.

Caution: The port groups must be isolated from all other port groups at layer 2. The port groups must be physically isolated or must be isolated by using VLAN tags. Failure to isolate properly the port groups can cause a network disruption.

Prerequisites

Verify that one or more port groups are available in your vSphere environment. The port groups must be available on each ESXi host in the cluster, and each port group must use only a single VLAN. Port groups with or without VLAN trunking are supported.

Procedure

  1. From the top navigation bar, select Resources and click Cloud Resources.
  2. In the left panel, select Network Pools and click New.
  3. Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the new network pool, and click Next.
  4. Select Portgroup-backed and click Next.
  5. Select a vCenter Server instance to provide port groups to be used by this network pool, and click Next.
  6. Select one or more port groups and click Next.
    You can create one network for each port group.
  7. Review the network pool settings and click Finish.

What to do next

Create an organization VDC network that is backed by the network pool or associate the network pool with an organization VDC and create vApp networks.