Export vSphere Distributed Switch Configurations

You can export vSphere Distributed Switch and distributed port group configurations to a file. The file preserves valid network configurations, enabling transfer of these configurations to other environments.

This functionality is available only with vCenter Server 5.1 and later.

You can export a switch configuration before you upgrade vCenter Server if you upgrade from vCenter Server 5.1. If you upgrade vCenter Server from a version earlier than 5.1, back up the switch configuration after you upgrade vCenter Server to version 6.0.

Prerequisites

Verify that vCenter Server is version 5.1 and later.

Procedure

1. In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to the distributed switch.
2. Right-click the distributed switch and select Settings > Export Configuration.
3. Choose to export the distributed switch configuration, or export the distributed switch configuration and all port groups.
4. (Optional) Enter notes about this configuration in the Descriptions field.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Yes to save the configuration file to your local system.

What to do next

Use the exported configuration file to do the following tasks:

• Create a copy of the exported distributed switch in a vSphere environment. See Import a vSphere Distributed Switch Configuration.
• Overwrite the settings on an existing distributed switch. See Restore a vSphere Distributed Switch Configuration.

You can also export, import, and restore only port group configurations. See Export, Import, and Restore vSphere Distributed Port Group Configurations.