You can manage core vSphere networking configurations in the vSphere Lifecycle Manager cluster level configuration manager. The vSphere networking configurations include vmknics, netstacks, vdsvswitches, pnics, netdump. firewall. ipsec, /etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf .

Starting vSphere 8.0 Update 3, vSphere Distributed Switch is integrated with vSphere Configuration Profiles (VCP). You can manage host distributed switch configuration in the vSphere Configuration Profiles (VCP) cluster.
Note: Global distributed switch configuration such as MTU is out of the scope of VCP.
You can manage vSphere Distributed Switch in addition to all the host configurations at the cluster level by using a single configuration file in JSON format. You can check if all the hosts in the cluster are compliant with the distributed and the host configurations. You can migrate the ESXi host networking from standard switch to a distributed switch using a remediation work flow at the cluster level. VMkernel network adapter on distributed switch is now fully supported by the configuration manager.

Using the configuration manager, you can configure VCPs that are attached to the VCP cluster which includes the host settings such as, the list of distributed switches that the hosts can join, and the PNIC to VDS uplink mapping.

Export Host Configuration

Learn how desired state configuration helps you to seamlessly manage your vSphere Networking configurations across geographies and different domains.

In this task, we are exporting a JSON file holding the desired state specification for a vmknic adapter.

Prerequisites

  • You must have a vSphere Life Cycle Manager enabled cluster.
  • Ensure that you have hosts in the cluster.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to the Cluster.
  2. Click Desired State > Host Settings > Extract from reference host. The Extract Settings dialog box appears.
  3. Choose the host from the existing cluster.
  4. Click Next
  5. Click Download Settings to download the file.

Results

The JSON file is downloaded.

What to do next

You can then reuse the JSON file to apply the desired state that it contains to another cluster in the same or in a different vCenter Server instance.
Note: Solution configuration is not included. Cached information is not included. Only host specific property is included.
Note: If you have vSphere Life Cycle Manager enabled cluster, you can not join the host in the cluster to a vSphere Distributed Switch.

Import Host Configuration

Learn how to import a desired state as a JSON file.

Learn how to import a JSON file with host configuration. Before applying a desired state on a cluster, you can scan all hosts in the cluster against the desired state and check the cluster compliance against the desired state. You can run compliance checks to detect any drifts instantly.

Prerequisites

  • You must have a vSphere Life Cycle Manager enabled cluster.
  • Ensure you have hosts in the cluster.
  • Ensure you have a valid host configuration JSON file.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to the Cluster.
  2. Click Desired State > Host Settings > Import Settings. The Import Host Settings dialog box appears.
  3. Click Browse to select file. The compliance is validated.
    If there are hosts that are not compliant, an error message is displayed.
  4. Click Remediate to remediate the host compliance issue. The Remediate Settings dialog box appears. The Pre-check is in-progress.
  5. The Pre-Check is completed. The host level remediation details are displayed under Review Impact.
  6. Click Remediate to remediate the configuration settings.

Results

You can view the imported settings on the host.

Example: