Switch discovery protocols help vSphere administrators to determine which port of the physical switch is connected to a vSphere standard switch or vSphere distributed switch.

vSphere 5.0 and later supports Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) and Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP). CDP is available for vSphere standard switches and vSphere distributed switches connected to Cisco physical switches. LLDP is available for vSphere distributed switches version 5.0.0 and later.

When CDP or LLDP is enabled for a particular vSphere distributed switch or vSphere standard switch, you can view properties of the peer physical switch such as device ID, software version, and timeout from the vSphere Client.

Enable Cisco Discovery Protocol on a vSphere Distributed Switch

Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) enables vSphere administrators to determine which port of a physical Cisco switch connects to a vSphere Standard Switch or vSphere Distributed Switch. When CDP is enabled for a vSphere Distributed Switch, you can view the properties of the Cisco switch such as device ID, software version, and timeout.

Procedure

  1. On the vSphere Client Home page, click Networking and navigate to the distributed switch.
  2. From the Actions menu, select Settings > Edit Settings.
  3. In the Edit Settings dialog box, click Advanced.
  4. In the Discovery Protocol section, select Cisco Discovery Protocol from the Type drop-down menu.
  5. From the Operation drop-down menu, select the operational mode of the ESXi hosts connected to the switch.
    Option Description
    Listen ESXi detects and displays information about the associated Cisco switch port, but information about the vSphere Distributed Switch is not available to the Cisco switch administrator.
    Advertise ESXi makes information about the vSphere Distributed Switch available to the Cisco switch administrator, but does not detect and display information about the Cisco switch.
    Both ESXi detects and displays information about the associated Cisco switch and makes information about the vSphere Distributed Switch available to the Cisco switch administrator.
  6. Click OK.

Enable Link Layer Discovery Protocol on a vSphere Distributed Switch

With Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP), vSphere administrators can determine which physical switch port connects to a given vSphere Distributed Switch. When LLDP is enabled for a particular distributed switch, you can view properties of the physical switch (such as chassis ID, system name and description, and device capabilities) from the .

Procedure

  1. On the vSphere Client Home page, click Networking and navigate to the distributed switch.
  2. From the Actions menu, select Settings > Edit Settings.
  3. In the Edit Settings dialog box, click Advanced.
  4. In the Discovery Protocol section, select Link Layer Discovery Protocol from the Type drop-down menu.
  5. From the Operation drop-down menu, select the operational mode of the ESXi hosts connected to the switch.
    Operation Description
    Listen ESXi detects and displays information about the associated physical switch port, but information about the vSphere Distributed Switch is not available to the switch administrator.
    Advertise ESXi makes information about the vSphere Distributed Switch available to the switch administrator, but does not detect and display information about the physical switch.
    Both ESXi detects and displays information about the associated physical switch and makes information about the vSphere Distributed Switch available to the switch administrator.
  6. Click OK.

View Switch Information

When Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) or Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is enabled on the distributed switch and the hosts connected to the switch are in Listen or Both operational mode, you can view physical switch information from the vSphere Client.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to the host.
  2. On the Configure tab, expand Networking and click Physical adapters.
  3. Select a physical adapter from the list to view its detailed information.

Results

According to the enabled switch discovery protocol, the properties of the switch appear under the CDP or LLDP tab. If the information is available in the network, under Peer device capability you can examine the system capabilities of the switch.