Refreshing port state information for a vNetwork Distributed Virtual Switch

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The Port State information for a vNetwork Distributed Virtual Switch indicates whether the port is in a Link Up, Link Down, or Blocked state. The port state is displayed in the Ports tab for the vNetwork Distributed Virtual Switch in the vSphere Client connected to vCenter Server.

This article describes methods to refresh the state information for a vNetwork Distributed Virtual Switch port list in the vSphere Client.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x

Resolution

The vNetwork Distributed Virtual Switch port state can be periodically refreshed manually or automatically. If automatic port state refresh is disabled, it will still be updated at 5 minute intervals using the Fetch distributed virtual ports task.

To refresh the port state manually:

1. Open the vSphere Client and connect to vCenter Server.
2. Click Home.
3. Click the Networking inventory view.
4. Select the vNetwork Distributed Virtual Switch in the inventory.
5. Click the Ports tab. A list of the ports is displayed, along with their port state.
6. Right-click the list of ports and click Refresh. A Refresh distributed virtual port state or Refresh dvPort State task appears and the State column is updated.

To refresh the port state automatically:

1. Open the vSphere Client and connect to vCenter Server.
2. Click Home.
3. Click the Networking inventory view.
4. Select the vNetwork Distributed Virtual Switch in the inventory.
5. Click the Ports tab. A list of the ports is displayed, along with their port state.
6. Click Start Monitoring Port State located at the top right corner. When the Ports tab is displayed, the vSphere Client will automatically refresh every 20 seconds and the State column is updated each time. Each refresh is accompanied by a task seen in Recent Tasks.
   
   Note: To stop automatic refresh of dvPort state, click Stop Monitoring Port State at the top right corner.
   
   For more information, see the Monitor dvPort State section of the vSphere ESX 4.1 Configuration Guide.
   

Note: The DVS port state refresh is initiated by any vSphere Client connected to vCenter Server, but the refresh task is performed by vCenter Server and is seen by all connected clients in the Recent Tasks list. If multiple vSphere Client sessions are connected at the same time and each session is refreshing the port state every 20 seconds, the Recent Tasks list seen by a client will contain the refresh tasks created by all the clients.

If Refresh Tasks appear regularly in the recent tasks list of a vSphere Client connected to vCenter Server, but is not being initiated by any vSphere Client, open a support request with VMware Support and attach the vCenter Server logs. For more information, see:

• How to File a Support Request
• Collecting diagnostic information for VMware vCenter Server 4.x (1011641)

Additional Information

In the vpxd logs of vCenter Server, the Refresh distributed virtual port state task appears similar to:

[datestamp threadid info 'App' opID=operationid] [VpxLRO] -- BEGIN task-id --
dvs-id -- vim.DistributedVirtualSwitch.refreshPortState -- guid