Create a vSphere Standard Switch to provide network connectivity for hosts, virtual machines, and to handle VMkernel traffic. Depending on the connection type that you want to create, you can create a new vSphere Standard Switch with a VMkernel adapter, only connect physical network adapters to the new switch, or create the switch with a virtual machine port group.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to the host.
  2. On the Configure tab, expand Networking and select Virtual switches.
  3. Click Add networking.
  4. Select a connection type for which you want to use the new standard switch and click Next.
    Option Description
    VMkernel Network Adapter Create a new VMkernel adapter to handle host management traffic, vMotion, network storage, fault tolerance, or vSAN traffic.
    Physical Network Adapter Add physical network adapters to an existing or a new standard switch.
    Virtual Machine Port Group for a Standard Switch Create a new port group for virtual machine networking.
  5. Select New standard switch and click Next.
  6. Add physical network adapters to the new standard switch.
    1. Under Assigned adapters, click Add adapters.
    2. Select one or more physical network adapters from the list and click OK.
      For higher throughput and to provide redundancy, configure at least two physical network adapters in the Active list.
    3. (Optional) Use the Move up and Move down arrows in the Assigned adapters list to change the position of the adapter.
    4. Click Next.
  7. If you create the new standard switch with a VMkernel adapter or virtual machine port group, enter connection settings for the adapter or the port group.
    Option Description
    VMkernel adapter
    1. Enter a label that indicates the traffic type for the VMkernel adapter, for example vMotion.
    2. Set a VLAN ID to identify the VLAN that the network traffic of the VMkernel adapter will use.
    3. Select IPv4, Ipv6 or both.
    4. Select an option from the drop-down menu to set the MTU size. If you select Custom, enter a value for the MTU size. You can enable jumbo frames by setting an MTU value greater than 1500. You cannot set an MTU size greater than 9000 bytes.
    5. Select a TCP/IP stack. After you set a TCP/IP stack for the VMkernel adapter, you cannot change it later. If you select the vMotion or the Provisioning TCP/IP stack, you will be able to use only this stack to handle vMotion or Provisioning traffic on the host.
    6. If you use the default TCP/IP stack, select from the available services.
    7. Configure IPv4 and IPv6 settings.
    Virtual machine port group
    1. Enter a network Label or the port group, or accept the generated label.
    2. Set the VLAN ID to configure VLAN handling in the port group.
  8. On the Ready to Complete page, click Finish.

What to do next

  • You might need to change the teaming and failover policy of the new standard switch. For example, if the host is connected to an Etherchannel on the physical switch, you must configure the vSphere Standard Switch with Route based on IP hash as a load balancing algorithm. See What is Teaming and Failover Policy for more information.
  • If you create the new standard switch with a port group for virtual machine networking, connect virtual machines to the port group.