VMWARE VSPHERE 8.

0
INSTALL, CONFIGURE, MANAGE

Lab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

Document Version: 2023-03-08

Copyright © 2023 Network Development Group, Inc.

www.netdevgroup.com

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VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc.

94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Objective ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Lab Topology ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Lab Settings ............................................................................................................................................... 5
1 Create a Distributed Switch............................................................................................................... 6
2 Add ESXi Hosts to the Distributed Switch........................................................................................ 13
3 Verify Your Distributed Switch Configuration ................................................................................. 19

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

Introduction

In this lab, you will create and configure a distributed switch.

Creating distributed switches in vSphere is important because it allows you to centrally manage the
network configuration of multiple ESXi hosts. This can be useful in a number of ways:

• Consistency: By using a distributed switch, you can ensure that the network configuration of all
the hosts in your vSphere environment are consistent. This can make it easier to troubleshoot
network issues and manage changes to the network configuration.
• Scalability: A distributed switch allows you to add more hosts to your vSphere environment
without having to reconfigure the network settings on each host individually. This can save a
significant amount of time and effort as your environment grows.
• Network Management Features: A distributed switch provides features such as network health
check, network I/O control, traffic shaping, and NetFlow support. These features are not
available on a standard switch, and a distributed switch provides these features to all the hosts
that are connected to it.
• Port Mirroring and Private VLANs: A distributed switch allows you to mirror traffic from a
virtual NIC (vNIC) to another virtual or physical NIC for troubleshooting purposes or for security
monitoring. Also, it allows you to create private VLANs for isolation and security of Virtual
Machines (VMs).
• Enhanced Security: A distributed switch allows you to configure security policies, such as port
security and MAC address changes, at the switch level rather than at the host level. This can
help to improve the security of your vSphere environment.

In summary, there are multiple ways for administrators to configure and secure vSphere distributed
switches within their vSphere environment.

Objective

• Create a Distributed Switch

• Add ESXi Hosts to the Distributed Switch
• View Your Distributed Switch Configuration

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

Lab Topology

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

Lab Settings

The information in the table below will be needed to complete the lab. The task sections further below
provide details on the use of this information.

Virtual Machine IP Address Account Password

sa-student eth0: 172.20.10.80 sysadmin NDGlabpass123!

sa-vcsa eth0: 172.20.10.94 [email protected] NDGlabpass123!

sa-esxi-01 eth0: 172.20.10.51 root NDGlabpass123!

sa-esxi-02 eth0: 172.20.10.52 root NDGlabpass123!

sa-aio eth0: 172.20.10.10 sysadmin NDGlabpass123!

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

1 Create a Distributed Switch

In this task, you will create a distributed switch that functions as a single virtual switch across all
associated hosts in your vSphere environment.

A distributed switch is a virtual switch that allows the central management of network configuration of
multiple ESXi hosts. It offers advanced features such as network health check, I/O control, traffic
shaping, and security policies. It also allows automation of network provisioning and configuration. It
requires a vSphere server, but it improves scalability, management, and security of the vSphere
environment.

1. Launch the sa-student VM to access the graphical login screen.

To launch the console window for a VM, either click on the machine’s
graphic image from the topology page, or click on the machine’s
respective tab from the Navigator.

2. Launch the Mozilla Firefox web browser by either clicking on the icon found in the bottom toolbar
or by navigating to Start Menu > Internet > Firefox Web Browser.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

3. In Firefox, click LAUNCH VSPHERE CLIENT.

If the VMware Getting Started webpage does not load, please wait an
additional 3 - 5 minutes, and refresh the page to continue. This is
because the vCenter Server Appliance is still booting up and requires
extra time to initialize.

4. To log in to the vCenter Server Appliance, enter [email protected] as the username and
NDGlabpass123! as the password. Click LOGIN.

You may ignore the “browser-OS combination” warning message

presented on the VMware vCenter Single Sign-On page and continue
moving forward with the lab.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

5. In the Navigator, select the Networking tab. Expand sa-vcsa.vclass.local and right-click ICM-
Datacenter. Navigate to Distributed Switch > New Distributed Switch.

6. In the New Distributed Switch window, on the Name and location step, enter dvs-Lab for the Name,
and click NEXT.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

7. On the Select version step, leave 8.0.0 - ESXi 8.0 and later selected, and click NEXT.

8. On the Configure settings step, enter pg-SA-Production for the Port group name, keep all other
default values, and click NEXT.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

9. On the Ready to complete step, review the configuration settings, and click FINISH.

10. In the Navigator, select the Networking tab. Expand ICM-Datacenter and verify that the dvs-Lab
distributed switch appears.

11. In the Navigator, expand dvs-Lab. Right-click pg-SA-Production and select Edit Settings.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

12. In the Edit Settings window, select Teaming and failover.

13. Under the Failover Order section, move Uplink 2, Uplink 3, and Uplink 4 down until they appear
under the Unused uplinks section. You must click uplinks to select and deselect them.

a. Select Uplink 2, Uplink 3, Uplink 4 by holding Ctrl on the keyboard and click your mouse
to select all three uplinks. Click MOVE DOWN until Uplink 2, Uplink 3, and Uplink 4
appear under Unused uplinks.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

b. Verify Uplink 2, Uplink 3, and Uplink 4 appear under the Unused uplinks. Uplink 1
should be the only active uplink. Click OK.

14. Leave the vSphere Client open, and continue to the next task.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

2 Add ESXi Hosts to the Distributed Switch

In this task, you will add ESXi hosts and physical adapters to the new distributed switch.

There are several reasons why you would want to add ESXi hosts to a distributed switch in your vSphere
environment:

• Centralized Management
• Advanced Network Features
• Port Mirroring and Private VLANs
• Enhanced Security
• Network Automation
• Scalability

Adding ESXi hosts to a distributed switch can help to improve the scalability, management, and security
of your vSphere environment, and it allows you to use advanced features not available on a standard
switch.

1. In the Navigator, on the Networking tab, right-click dvs-Lab and select Add and Manage Hosts.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

2. In the Select task step, verify Add Hosts is selected, and click NEXT.

3. On the Select hosts step, click Select All. Verify that sa-esxi-01.vclass.local and sa-esxi-
02.vclass.local are selected. Click NEXT.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

4. On the Manage physical adapters step, click the double arrow next to vmnic1 and verify that sa-
esxi-01.vclass.local and sa-esxi-02.vclass.local appear in the host list. Close the Related hosts pane
by clicking the X in the upper right corner.

5. In the vmnic1 row, select Uplink 1 from the Assign uplink drop-down menu. Click NEXT.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

6. Review the information for the new active adapter, and click NEXT.

7. On the Migrate VM networking step, migrate all VMs to the pg-SA-Production port group. Select
Migrate virtual machine networking.

8. In the Configure per network adapter pane, notice the Source Network and Used by columns.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

9. On the Migrate VM networking step, click ASSIGN PORT GROUP.

10. In the Select Network pane, click ASSIGN and click NEXT.

11. On the Ready to complete step, review the information, and click FINISH.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

12. Monitor the Recent Tasks pane, and verify that the tasks have completed successfully.

13. Leave the vSphere Client open to continue with the next task.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

3 Verify Your Distributed Switch Configuration

In this task, you will verify that the distributed switch was configured properly. You will also examine
other distributed switch information, such as general settings for dvs-Lab and general properties for
pg-SA-Production.

It is important to verify the configuration of a distributed switch in vSphere for several reasons:

• Consistency: By verifying the configuration of a distributed switch, you can ensure that all the
hosts in your vSphere environment are configured consistently. This can make it easier to
troubleshoot network issues and manage changes to the network configuration.
• Configuration Validity: Verifying the distributed switch configuration can ensure that the
network settings have been configured correctly and that there are no errors or inconsistencies.
This can help to prevent network issues and ensure that your vSphere environment is
functioning properly.
• Compliance: Verifying the distributed switch configuration can help you to ensure that your
vSphere environment is configured in compliance with your organization's security policies and
industry regulations.
• Performance: Verifying the distributed switch configuration can help you identify potential
performance bottlenecks and take steps to address them.
• Automation: With automated configuration verification, you can ensure that the configuration
of distributed switches is compliant with the intended configuration, and detect any drift that
might have occurred.

By regularly verifying the configuration of your distributed switch, you can ensure that your vSphere
environment is functioning properly, and that it is configured in a way that meets your organization's
needs. This can help improve overall performance.

1. In the Navigator, on the Networking tab, select the dvs-LAB distributed switch.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

2. In the dvs-Lab pane, click the Configure tab, and select Topology. In the distributed switch
topology diagram, expand Uplink 1. Verify that vmnic1 appears under Uplink 1 for ESXi hosts sa-
esxi-01.vclass.local and sa-esxi-02.vclass.local.

3. In the pg-SA-Production box, verify that the number of VMs connected matches what you recorded
in Task 2, step 8.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

4. In the dvs-Lab pane, select Properties and verify the settings.

• Number of uplinks: 4
• MTU Size: 1500 Bytes
• Discovery Protocol Type: Cisco Discovery Protocol

5. In the Navigator, select pg-SA-Production.

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94BLab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches

6. In the pg-SA-Production pane, Summary tab, verify the distribute port group settings.

• Port Binding: Static

• Port Allocation: Elastic
• Number of Ports used: 4
• Number of Ports Capacity: 8
• Number of Virtual Machines: 4

7. The lab is now complete; you may end the reservation.

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