Create and configure vSphere Distributed Switches to handle the infrastructure and VM traffic on the management cluster.

Prerequisites

Ensure that the management vCenter Server instance is installed and running.

Procedure

  1. In the data center TCI_MGMT_DC, create a distributed switch named TCI_MGMT_INFRA_VDS to use as the infrastructure vSphere Distributed Switch. For more information, see Create a vSphere Distributed Switch.
  2. Add two uplinks to the distributed switch.
  3. Add hosts from ESXi_MGMT_01 to ESXi_MGMT_04 to the distributed switch TCI_MGMT_INFRA_VDS by connecting two physical NICs from each host to the switch.
  4. Configure VMkernel networking.
    1. Create the following port groups on the distributed switch TCI_MGMT_INFRA_VDS:

      Port Group

      VLAN ID

      ESXi Management

      100

      vMotion Network

      200

      vSAN Network

      300

      NFS Network

      400

      Replication Network

      500
    2. Migrate the management VMkernel adapter of each host to the ESXi Management port group.
    3. Create VMkernel adapters on each host for different traffic types.

      • Set the traffic type of each adapter to an infrastructure traffic type, for example, vMotion traffic, vSAN traffic.

      • Associate each adapter to the dedicated port group. For example, associate the vMotion adapter to the vMotion port group.

  5. Create a distributed switch named TCI_MGMT_TENANT_VDS to use as the tenant vSphere Distributed Switch.
  6. Add two uplinks to the distributed switch TCI_MGMT_TENANT_VDS.
  7. Add ESXi_MGMT_01 to ESXi_MGMT_04 to the switch TCI_MGMT_TENANT_VDS.
  8. Connect the remaining two physical Ethernet ports from each ESXi host to the uplinks on TCI_MGMT_TENANT_VDS.
  9. For VM networking, create the following port groups on TCI_MGMT_TENANT_VDS.

    Port Group

    VLAN ID

    VM Management Network

    10

    vCenter HA Network

    20

    External Network

    30

    Backup Network

    40
  10. Migrate the VM network from the Standard switch to Tenant VDS.
  11. Connect the VM of the vCenter Server system TCI_MGMT_VC to the VM Management Network port group (VLAN 10).
  12. Verify that you can log in to TCI_MGMT_VC and that the connectivity status of all ESXi hosts in the management cluster is Connected.
  13. [Optional] Mount the NFS datastore to all the management cluster hosts in case the user wants to use NFS Datastore.

What to do next

VERIFICATION CHECKPOINT 1

After you configure the distributed switches, verify the following.

  • Two distributed switches are visible in each ESXi host in the management cluster.

  • All four Ethernet ports of the ESXi host are connected to uplink ports on the distributed switches.

  • vSphere vMotion is working. Verify it by migrating any test VMs.

  • vSAN network connectivity between the hosts by pinging the vSAN VMkernel adapter from one ESXi host to other hosts. Use the following command to ping the vSAN VMkernel adapter:

    • vmkping -I vmkXip_address

      • X indicates the VMkernel number.

      • ip_address indicates the IP address of another host that is configured with vSAN VMkernel portgroup.

  • VM network connectivity when moving the VMs across ESXi hosts in the cluster.