Create a dedicated vSphere Distributed Switch for infrastructure networks and another one for the SR-IOV traffic if needed.

The resource cluster also hosts the tenant networks that are handled by N-VDS Standard and Enhanced switches in NSX-T Data Center. During configuration, NSX-T Data Center automatically creates the objects for the N-VDS switches on each host from the cluster.

For the steps to configure NSX-T Data Center and the corresponding N-VDS switches, see NSX-T Data Center Deployment.

Procedure

  1. Create a distributed switch named TCI_RES_INFRA_VDS to use as the infrastructure vSphere Distributed Switch.
  2. Add two uplinks to the distributed switch.
  3. Add hosts ESXi_RES_01 through ESXi_RES_04 to TCI_RES_INFRA_VDS.
  4. Connect two physical Ethernet ports from each ESXi host to the uplink ports on TCI_RES_INFRA_VDS.
  5. Configure Infrastructure networking.
    1. Create the following port groups on the distributed switch TCI_RES_INFRA_VDS:

      Port Group

      VLAN ID

      ESXi Management

      100

      vMotion Network

      200

      vSAN Network

      300

      VM Management Network

      10
    2. Migrate the management VMkernel adapter of each host to the ESXi Management port group.
    3. Create VMkernel adapters on each host for the rest of the infrastructure traffic types.

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

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

  6. (Optional) (Optional) If you want to configure the SR-IOV network with a port group, create an extra vSphere Distributed Switch with one port group.

    Port Group

    VLAN ID

    SR-IOV Network

    <N>

    N: Any VLAN
  7. Verify that you can log in to TCI_RES_VC and that all the ESXi hosts are in the Connected state.

What to do next

VERIFICATION CHECKPOINT 4

After configuring the distributed switches in the resource cluster, verify the following.

  • One distributed switch is visible in each ESXi host in the resource cluster.

  • Two Ethernet ports of the ESXi host are connected to uplink ports for TCI_RES_INFRA_VDS, and remaining free Ethernet ports are configured for N-VDS Standard and N-VDS Enhanced.