To prepare a transport node using vSphere Distributed Switch for uninstallation, migrate out any VMkernel adapters and physical NICs on a vSphere Distributed Switch (NSX Switch in vCenter Server) to vSwitch0.

In contrast, on a transport node prepared using a N-VDS switch, the uninstall wizard allows you to specify mapping of VMkernel adapters and physical NICs, that are migrated to a vSwitch0 during uninstallation. See Verify Host Network Mappings for Uninstall.

In this task, there is no restriction on the type of switch chosen to migrate back physical NICs and VMkernel adapters. The switch can be of the type: Static Binding or Ephemeral.

Scenarios during migrating back VMkernels and physical NICs:

  1. In the procedure below, consider a host with two physical NICs and VMkernel adapters:

    • NSX Switch has vmnic0 and vmnic1 configured to uplink 1 and 2 respectively and the port group is connected to vmk1 and vmk0.

    • vSwitch0 does not have any vmnic or VMkernel adapter configured on it. During migration, vCenter Server does not restrict to migrate back vmks to an Ephemeral switch. At the end of the procedure, vmnic0, vmnic1, and vmk0, vmk1 are migrated back to vSwitch0.

    NSX-T Data Center switch configured with vmnic0 and vmnic1 and port group connected to vmk1 and vmk0.

  2. (Scenarios not covered in this task) If the host only has a single physical NIC and a VMkernel adapter configured to the NSX-T Data Center switch, you might choose to do one of the following:
    • To migrate out the physical NIC and VMkernel adapter to vSwitch0, run vSphere API (use the updateNetworkConfig method of NetworkSystem interface) to migrate both the physical NIC and VMkernel adapter at the same time. vSphere Client does not support this type of migration.
    • To migrate out only the VMkernel adapter to another distributed virtual port group on the NSX Switch (a VDS switch), you can use the vSphere Client to migrate out the VMkernel adapter to another port group on the NSX Switch.

At the end of the procedure, vmnic0, vmnic1 and vmk0, vmk1 are migrated back to vSwitch0.

Prerequisites

  • ESXi hosts are prepared as transport nodes using vSphere Distributed Switch.
  • VMkernels and physical NICs are migrated to the vSphere Distributed Switch as part of installation.

Procedure

  1. From a browser, log in with admin privileges to a vCenter Server at https://<vCenterServer-ip-address>.
  2. Navigate to Host → Configure → Virtual Switches.
  3. Make a note of the vmknics to be migrated to the vSwitch0.
  4. Navigate to Home → Networking, to view all switches configured in the data center.
  5. In the Switch page, click Actions → Add and Manage Hosts.
  6. Select Manage Host Networking.
  7. Click Next.
  8. In the Select Member Hosts window, select hosts.
  9. Click Ok.
  10. In the Manage physical adapters window, select vmnic1 and click Unassign adapter.
  11. To apply the same configuration on other hosts of the cluster, in the Confirm Unassign Adapter popup window, select Apply this operation to all other hosts.
  12. Finish the wizard.

    All vmnic1 on hosts are free.

  13. To migrate back vmnic1 to vSwitch0.
    1. navigate to Host → Configure → Virtual Switches.
    2. In the vSwitch0 section, click Manage Physical Adapters.
    3. Add vmnic1 to vSwitch0.
    4. Finish the wizard by accepting defaults.

      Verify vCenter Server migrated vmnic1 to vSwitch0 and assigned it an IP address.

  14. To migrate back vmk1 to vSwitch0.
    1. navigate to Host → Configure → Virtual Switches.
    2. In the vSwitch0 section, click Migrate VMkernel Adapters.
    3. Add vmk1 to vSwitch0.
    4. Finish the wizard by accepting defaults.

      Verify vCenter Server migrated vmk1 to vSwitch0 and assigned it an IP address.

  15. Similarly, migrate back vmnic0 to vSwitch0 and vmk0 to an existing or a new port group on vSwitch0.

    Verify vmnic0 and vmk0 are assigned new IP addresses.

  16. Verify there are no vmks on the NSX switch. All vmks must be migrated to the vSwitch 0 or another port group on the NSX switch.

What to do next

Navigate to NSX Manager and uninstall the transport node. At the end of uninstallation process, verify configuration status of the host is Not Configured. This completes the uninstallation of NSX-T Data Center on the host.