Alternative methods to create virtual switch.
Creating virtual switch through GUI is well described in documentation and pretty intuitive using GUI. However, sometimes it might be useful to know how to do it with CLI or Powershell, thus making the process part of a script to automate initial configuration of ESXi after installation.
Here you will find commands which are necessary to create and configure a standard virtual switch using CLI and Powershell. Those examples will describe the process of vSwitch creation for vMotion traffic which involves VMkernel creation.
I. vSwitch configuration through CLI
- Create a vSwitch named “vMotion”
esxcli network vswitch standard add -v vMotion
- Check whether your newly created vSwitch was configured and is available on the list.
esxcli network vswitch standard list
- Add physical uplink (vmnic) to your vSwitch
esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add -u vmnic4 -v vMotion
- Designate an uplink to be used as active.
esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover set -a vmnic4 -v vMotion
- Add a port group named “vMotion-PG” to previously created vSwitch
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add -v vMotion -p vMotion-PG
- Add a VMkernel interface to a port group (Optional – not necessary if you are creating a vSwitch just for VM traffic)
esxcli network ip interface add -p vMotion-PG -i vmk9
- Configure IP settings of a VMkernel adapter.
esxcli network ip interface ipv4 set -i vmk9 -t static -I 172.20.14.11 -N 255.255.255.0
- Tag VMkernel adapter for a vMotion service. NOTE – service tag is case sensitive.
esxcli network ip interface tag add -i vmk9 -t vmotion
Done, your vSwitch is configured and ready to service vMotion traffic.
II. vSwitch configuration through PowerCLI
- First thing is to connect to vCenter server.
Connect-VIServer -Server vcsa.vclass.local -User administrator@vsphere.local -Password VMware1!
- Indicate specific host and create new virtual switch, assigning vmnic at the same time.
$vswitch1 = New-VirtualSwitch -VMHost sa-esx01.vclass.local -Name vMotion -NIC vmnic4
- Create port group and add it to new virtual switch.
New-VirtualPortGroup -VirtualSwitch $vswitch1 -Name vMotion-PG
- Create and configure VMkernel adapter.
New-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost sa-esx01.vclass.local -PortGroup vMotion-PG -VirtualSwitch vMotion -IP 172.20.11.11 -SubnetMask 255.255.255.0 -vmotionTrafficEnabled $true