Migrate VMkernel Adapters to a vSphere Distributed Switch

Learn how to migrate VMkernel adapters to a distributed switch if you want to handle the traffic for VMkernel services by using only this switch when you no longer need the adapters on other standard or distributed switches.

Procedure

1. On the vSphere Client Home page, click Networking and navigate to the distributed switch.
2. Right-click the distributed switch and select Add and Manage Hosts.
3. On the Select task page, select Manage host networking and click Next.
4. On the Select hosts page, under Member Hosts, select from the hosts that are associated with the distributed switch.
5. Click Next.
6. On the Manage physical adapters page, you can add or remove network adapters to the distributed switch by assigning or unassigning an uplink.
7. Click Next.
   Note: If a host does not have an assigned physical network adapter, then a warning appears.
8. On the Manage VMkernel adapters page, you can manage VMkernel adapters to the distributed switch.
9. To manage VMkernel adapters on all hosts that have the same VMkernel adapter, select Adapters on all hosts.
   1. Click Assign Port Group
      You can see all the available port groups.
   2. To assign a port group, click Assign.
   3. To unassign a port group, click Unassign.
   For instance, if you assign DPortGroup1 to vmk0, the port group is assigned to all the hosts that has vmk0 as its VMkernel network adapter.
10. To see more details about the hosts, expand the VMkernel adapter listed under Name.
11. You can view the switches that use this VMkernel adapter in In use by switch.
12. To manager VMkernel adapter per host, select Adapters per host.
    1. Select the individual host from the list.
    2. Click Assign Port Group.
       You can see all the available port groups.
    3. To assign a port group, click Assign .
    4. To unassign a port group, click Unassign.
13. Click Next.
14. On the Migrate VM networking page, select the check box Migrate virtual machine networking to migrate virtual machines to a distributed switch.
15. Click Next.
16. On the Ready to Complete page of the Add and Manage Hosts wizard, review the settings for the virtual machine.
17. Click Finish.