VDS Co-existence with Configuration Profiles user guide.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
On 8.0.1, VCP (vSphere Configuration Profile) enabled cluster can co-exists with VDS. User can use VCP to manage the cluster level configure even there are hosts connected to VDS. But user can not use VCP to manage VDS related configurations, any VDS related drift may lead to VCP precheck failure.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.1

Cause

This is caused as 8.0.1 VDS is not fully supported with VCP(vSphere Configuration Profile).

Resolution

If the configuration drift is not related to VDS, the remediation workflow works fine:

Example workflow 1: Manage configuration with VDS co-exists

1. Creating VDS.
2. Join hosts to VDS.
3. Enable VCP on the cluster.
4. Extract desired document from reference host, import the document to the cluster and remediate the cluster. All the hosts are compliant.
5. Select one host in the cluster, do some steps to make the hosts non-compliant, for example create a new standard switch and so on.
6. Remediate the cluster, the host will come back to compliant state.

 
If the configuration drift is related to VDS, user should manually fix the precheck error. User needs to manage VDS related configurations with existing interface from VC UI, including:

• Creating/removing VDS.
• Adding hosts to VDS.
• Removing hosts from VDS.
• Changing VDS settings.
• Adding pnic to VDS.
• Removing pnic from VDS.
• Adding vmknic to VDS.
• Removing vmknic from VDS.

Example workflow 2: Resolve precheck failure

1. Creating VDS.
2. Join hosts to VDS.
3. Enable VCP on the cluster.
4. Extract desired document from reference host and remediate the cluster. All the hosts are compliant.
5. On reference host, create a vmknic on VDS.
6. Extract desired document from reference host, import the document to the cluster and remediate the cluster. Precheck will fail, it will tell user to create the vmknic on VDS manually.
7. Manually create a vmknic on VDS for every hosts in the cluster with the same configuration.
8. Check compliance on VCP, the cluster is complaint now.

VDS Co-existence with VCP are only supported with VC8.0.1+ESX8.0.1.
VC8.0.1 + ESX8.0.0 do not support VDS Co-existence with Config Manager even if user can enable Config Manager on a cluster with hosts at ESX8.0.0. This should not be used in this way.

Possible error messages in vmware-vum-server.log during remediation.

1. When the desired document have vmknic on VDS, but the host do not have the vmknic.

Error:
-->    com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.internal_server_error
--> Messages:
-->    com.vmware.esx.network.vds.coexist.addVmknic<Add 'vmkx' to VDS manually before remediation.>
Solution: Manually add the vmknic on VDS with VC UI.
Public document：Please refer, Create a VMkernel Adapter on a vSphere Distributed Switch for more information.

 

2. When the desired document have vmknic on VDS, but the host do not have the VDS and vmknic.

Error:
-->    com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.internal_server_error
--> Messages:
-->    com.vmware.esx.network.vds.coexist.addVmknicAndVds<Join host to VDS 'xxx' and add 'vmkx' to the VDS manually before remediation.>
Solution: Manually add join the host to the VDS and then add the vmknic to the VDS with VC UI.
Public document：Please refer, Add Hosts to a vSphere Distributed Switch and Create a VMkernel Adapter on a vSphere Distributed Switch for more information.

 

3. When the desired document do not have vmknic on VDS, but the host have the vmknic on VDS.

Error:
-->    com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.internal_server_error
--> Messages:
-->    com.vmware.esx.network.vds.coexist.deleteVmknic<Remove vmkx from VDS manually before remediation.>
Solution: Manually remove the vmknic with VC UI.
Public document: Please refer, Remove Hosts from a vSphere Distributed Switch for more information.

 

4. When the desired document have vmknic on VDS, the host also have this vmknic, but the configure of the vmknic have drift with the document.

Error:
-->    com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.internal_server_error
--> Messages:
-->    com.vmware.esx.network.vds.coexist.editVmknic<Updating vmkx is not supported because it is on VDS, fix its drift manually before remediation.>
Solution: Manually edit the vmknic with VC UI or esxcli to all the configuration of the vmknic the same as the document.
Public document: Please refer, Edit a VMkernel Adapter Configuration for more information.

 

5. When the desired document have vmknic on VDS, but on the host the vmknic is on vss, or vice versa.

Error:
-->    com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.internal_server_error
--> Messages:
-->    com.vmware.esx.network.vds.coexist.changeBacking<Moving vmkx between standard switch and VDS is not supported, move it manually before remediation.>
Solution: Manually migrate the vmknic to VDS/VSS.
Public document: Please refer, Migrate Virtual Machine Networking to the vSphere Distributed Switch for more information