Esxi- move management to another vSwitch

  1. Open ESXi shell.

  2. Under ESXi local console, use "alt+F1" entry ESXi shell.

  3. vi /etc/vmware/esx.conf, below is an example

# vSwitch0
/net/vswitch/child[0000]/...
/net/vswitch/child[0000]/name = "vSwitch0"
/net/vswitch/child[0000]/numPorts = "128"
# vSwitch0->portGroupA
/net/vswitch/child[0000]/portgroup/child[0000]/name = "portGroupA"
/net/vswitch/child[0000]/portgroup/child[0000]/teamPolicy/uplinks[0000]/pnic = "vmnic0"
# vSwitch0->portGroupB
/net/vswitch/child[0000]/portgroup/child[0001]/name = "portGroupB"
/net/vswitch/child[0000]/portgroup/child[0001]/teamPolicy/uplinks[0000]/pnic = "vmnic0"
/net/vswitch/child[0000]/uplinks/child[0000]/pnic = "vmnic0"

# vSwitch1
/net/vswitch/child[0001]/...
/net/vswitch/child[0001]/name = "vSwitch1"
/net/vswitch/child[0001]/numPorts = "128"
# vSwitch1->portGroupC (Management Network)
/net/vswitch/child[0001]/portgroup/child[0000]/name = "portGroupC"
/net/vswitch/child[0001]/portgroup/child[0000]/teamPolicy/uplinks[0000]/pnic = "vmnic1"
# vSwitch1->portGroupD
/net/vswitch/child[0001]/portgroup/child[0001]/name = "portGroupD"
/net/vswitch/child[0001]/portgroup/child[0001]/teamPolicy/uplinks[0000]/pnic = "vmnic1"
/net/vswitch/child[0001]/uplinks/child[0000]/pnic = "vmnic1"

(1) Check the firewall rule of this esxi, if you can ping but can not access its management web

(2) Make sure each vswitch has its uplinks

4. Now, we want to move portGroupC from vSwitch1 to vSwitch0, so the configuration is like this:

To do this, we:

  • Identify all of the portGroupC lines, which start with /net/vswitch/child[0001]/portgroup/child[0000]. Move those entries up with the vSwitch0 config (not necessary, but makes things clearer when editing).

  • Change /net/vswitch/child[0001] to /net/vswitch/child[0000] on each line (because we're moving it to that switch).

  • Realize that there is already a /net/vswitch/child[0000]/portgroup/child[0000](portGroupA), and change portGroupC to /portgroup/child[0002].

  • Realize that our uplink for that port group is now incorrect (if specified), and change uplinks[0000]/pnic = from vmnic1 to vmnic0 (because that is the vmnic serving that vSwitch.)

The final config should look like this:

5. Other changes

  • Set IP for management

  • Set Vlan ID for management

  • Choose vmnic for management

  • Change PA rules if need

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