Knowledge

• Understand ESX Host and port maximums for dvSwitches
  A vNetwork Distributed Switch (further dvSwitch) is a virtual switch that spans multiple ESX hosts.
  
  Unlike the previously covered vSwitch, a to an ESX host local switch, this dvSwitch has one configuration for all ESX hosts and allows for new features like network statistics that VMotion along with the host. You need to have an Enterprise Plus license to be able to use the dvSwitch (the most expensive and feature rich version of ESX).
  
  However, just like the old fashioned per ESX host vSwitches a vNetwork Distributed Switch has it’s limits. Lets see:
  • Total virtual network switch ports per host (vDS and vSS ports): 4096
  • Distributed virtual network switch ports per vCenter: 6000
  • Distributed port groups per vCenter: 512
  • Distributed switches per vCenter: 16
  • Hosts per distributed switch: 64
Take a good look at these figures. This means that PER vCenter there can be no more than 16 switches and no more than 512 port groups! If we compare this to the regular vSwitch we see that this allows for 248 switches PER HOST and 512 port groups PER SWITCH! Thus allowing for many more networks than a standard switch. When being realistic no “normal” implementation will exceed 512 portgroups per virtual Center, but when implementing this for example for a hosting provider you need to take this into account.

I think it is possible to mix vNetwork Distributed Switches with regular vSwitches, but I was unable to test this due to the lack of the right license and the fact that I think it is too much work (sorry ;-) ) to create a virtual ESX environment for this with temporary keys. If someone know this / is able to test this, please fill me in!

Update 15-dec-2009: Steve Desrosier left me a message about this You can have dvswitches and regular vswitches on the same server, but you do need seperate uplinks. Thanks for the info Steve!

• Determine the virtual port group NIC teaming and fail-over policy in a given situation
  Can’t seem to find what I need on the net, so this one is done by head. I think that the NIC teaming and failover policy is done just like when handling a vSwitch. You link the NIC’s to a vSwitch, and on the vSwitch you configure the failover policy. You need to link physical NICs to a dvSwitch on each ESX server that is using this dvSwitch.
  
  A dvSwitch allows for a more granular loadbalancing policy allowing you to team all physical adaptors into one big trunk to the ESX host. On the host you can specify on a per Distributed Port Group basis what port group uses what NIC. For example you can assign a dedicated NIC for the Service Console needing only one NIC, because on a failure of the network connection a different NIC temporary will be used (take the performance penealty into account!).
  
• Determine the appropriate virtual port group security policies in a given situation
  This is about promiscuous mode, MAC address changes, Forged Transmits. These techniques allow you to make your infrastructure more secure. Read more here (second half). http://b3rg.nl/vcdx/section-2-networking/objective-2.2-install-and-configure-a-virtual-networking-infrastructure-to-meet-set-security-design-requirements.html
• Create/Modify a vNetwork Distributed Switch
  Please read here on page 16. http://vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere-vnetwork-ds-migration-configuration-wp.pdf
• Create/Modify Uplink Group settings
  DV Port Groups on vDS are configuration templates for a group of ports and have a similar function and purpose to Port Groups on a vSS. DV Port Groups span all the hosts covered by a vDS, so any configuration change to a DV Port Group is reflected on all hosts covered by that vDS. To configure read here on page 17.
  
• Create/Modify dvPort Group settings
  To configure read here on page 18.
  
• Add an ESX/ESXi Host to a vNetwork Distributed Switch
  To configure read here on page 11.
  
• Add/Delete a VMkernel dvPort
  To configure read here on page 18.
  
• Migrate Virtual Machines to a vNetwork Distributed Switch
  The dvNetwork Migration and Configuration manual describes two separate methods of migrating to a dvSwitch
  • vDS UI only
    This offers more per host control over migration, but is a longer process. Hosts do not need to be in maintenance mode so VMs can be powered up during migration.
  • vDS UI and Host Profiles
    This uses a reference host template and is the recommended method for bulk vDS migration and deployment on hosts with inactive VMs. Host Profiles requires the target hosts to be in maintenance mode (i.e. VMs powered down).

Tools

• ESX/ESXi Configuration Guides
  
• Product Documentation
  
• VMware vSphere Client

Additional Links bij Matthijs

• vNetwork Distributed Switch Migration and Configuration
• The Greath vSwitch debate
• vSwitch architecture Disagram - HyperVizor