Adding a VMware ESXi host to a distributed switch fails with the error: NetPortset: 761: DvsPortset-0: too many ports on system already

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cannot add an ESXi host to a distributed switch
• Adding an ESXi host to a distributed switch fails
• In the /var/log/hostd.log file, you see this error:
  
  Create DVSwitch failed with the following error message: Sysinfo error on operation returned status : Limit exceeded. Please see the VMkernel log for detailed error information
  
  
• In the /var/log/vmkernel.log file, you see the error:
  
  cpu14:9114)WARNING: NetPortset: 761: DvsPortset-0: too many ports on system already (4993, limit is 4608)
  

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

Cause

This issue occurs if there are too many ports configured on an existing vSwitch. For example, if the host has 4088 ports on a vNetwork Standard Switch, or possibly another vNetwork Distributed Switch or Nexus 1000V virtual switch attached to the host with a large quantity of configured ports.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, reduce the number of ports on the host's existing vNetwork Standard Switches, Distributed Switches or Nexus 1000V switches.

To reduce the number of ports on a vNetwork Standard Switch:

1. Log in to the vSphere Client and select the host.
2. Click the Configuration tab and click Networking.
3. In the right side of the page, click Properties for the vSwitch that you want to edit.
4. Click the Ports tab.
5. Select the standard switch item in the Configuration list and click Edit.
6. Click the General tab.
7. Select a lesser value for the number of ports from the drop-down.
8. Click OK.
9. Restart the ESXi host.

Note: Ensure to restart the host for the changes to take effect.

With a vSphere Distributed Switch, you can either change the overall maximum number of ports per host on the vDS, or change the maximum number of ports on each port group in the switch.

To reduce the overall number of ports per host on a vSphere Distributed Switch (must be repeated for each host):

1. Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Hosts and Clusters inventory view.
2. Select the host to modify in the inventory pane.
3. On the host Configuration tab, click Networking.
4. Select the vSphere Distributed Switch view.
5. Click Properties next to the vSphere distributed switch to modify.
6. Select the maximum number of ports from the drop-down menu, and click OK.

To reduce the number of ports on the individual portgroups of a vSphere Distributed Switch:

1. Log in to the vSphere client and navigate to the Networking view.
2. Click on each of the Port Groups configured under each Distributed Switch and click the Summary tab to see the number of ports configured.
3. Once you have identified port groups with unnecessary ports configured, right click on the Port Group and click Edit Settings.
4. Under General, reduce the number of ports.
5. Click OK.

Note: In vSphere Distributed Switches, the number of ports needs to be considered for all hosts connecting as the port count is distributed across all hosts connected to this switch. A reboot is not required when changing the number of ports on a Distributed Switch, unless you are changing the maximum number of ports for a host after the host is added to the distributed switch. In the that case, you must restart the host before the new maximum takes effect.

To reduce the number of ports on a Nexus 1000V Virtual Switch:

1. Connect to the Nexus 1000V VSM via SSH or via the local console and ensure you are logged in in EXEC mode
   
2. Identify the number of ports used in each port profile by viewing the running configuration:
   
   n1kv# show run
   
   
3. Enter configure terminal mode:
   
   n1kv# configure terminal
   
   
4. Configure the vEthernet port profile you wish to reduce the number of ports on:
   
   n1kv(config)# vmware port-group portgroupname
   
   
5. Next, change the number of ports to a lower value:
   
   n1kv(config-port-prof)# vmware max-ports number
   
   
6. Exit the configure terminal mode and then save the configuration to make the changes persistent across reboots of the VSM:
   
   n1kv(config-port-prof)# exit
n1kv# copy run start
   
   

Note: Like vNetwork Distributed Switches, the number of ports on the Nexus 1000V must be considered for all hosts connecting to it. The port count is distributed across all hosts connected to the switch. A reboot is not required when changing the number of ports on the Nexus 1000V.

For more information, please refer to the Nexus 1000V Port Profile Configuration Guide for the version you are using.

Additional Information

To be alerted when this document is updated, click the Subscribe to Article link in the Actions box