Specifying or changing the load balancing policy from the command line in ESXi

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article outlines how to specify the load balancing policy on a vSwitch or port group from the command line.

Resolution

To get/set the load balancing policy on a Virtual Switch on an ESXi Host

To list the current NIC teaming policy of a vSwitch, use the command below, replacing vSwitch_name with the name of your vSwitch, e.g. vSwitch0:

• esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover get -v <vSwitch_name>

To set the load balancing policy of a vSwitch, use this command:

• esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover set -l <policy> -v <vSwitch_name>

Note: available policy options:

• explicit = Use explicit failover order

• portid = Route based upon port id (this is the default setting)

• mac = Source based upon MAC hash

• iphash = Source based up IP hash (this is only to be used in a etherchannel/Portchannel)

For example, to set the load balancing policy of a vSwitch named vSwitch0 to IP hash:

• esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover set -l iphash -v vSwitch0

 

To get/set the load balancing policy on a Port Group on an ESXi Host

To list the current load balancing policy of a port group, run this command with (use your own specified port group name):

• esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy failover get -p <portgroup_name>

To set the load balancing policy of a port group, run this command (with your desired policy from the list above):

• esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy failover set -p <portgroup_name> -l <policy>

For example, to set the load balancing policy of a portgroup named "Management Network" to IP hash:

• esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy failover set -p "Management Network" -l iphash

Additional Information

For more information on configuring a virtual switch from the command line, see Configuring vSwitch or vNetwork Distributed Switch from the command line in ESXi/ESX (1008127)