Migrating an ESXi management interface from vSphere Standard Virtual Switch to vSphere Distributed Virtual Switch fails and results in a rollback

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Migrating an ESXi management interface from vSphere Standard Switch to vSphere Distributed Switch fails that result in a rollback.
• During this time, the ESXi host is pingable and reachable. However, it may lose 1 or 2 pings when the management interface moves between virtual switches.
• In the hostd.log file, located at /var/log/ on the ESXi host, you see entries similar to:
  
  T15:14:35.008Z [27B81B70 verbose 'Hostsvc' opID=D82926F9-00000B79-17-c5 user=vpxuser] Invoking transaction 440 method updateNetworkConfig
  T15:15:05.011Z [26081B70 verbose 'Hostsvc' opID=D82926F9-00000B79-17-c5 user=vpxuser] Rollback settings of transaction 440 method updateNetworkConfig

Cause

vSphere Network Rollback is used to prevent accidental misconfiguration of management networking and loss of connectivity to the ESXi host by rolling back to a previous valid configuration.

In some environments, depending on workload of the vCenter Server and ESXi, the default timeout of 30 seconds may be too low to allow the migration to the vSphere Distributed Switch to complete.

Note: The default timeout before rollback occurs is 30 seconds.

For additional information, see Understanding network rollback and recovery in vSphere 5.1 and later.

Resolution

Note: To allow the migration to complete without a rollback, it may be necessary to increase the rollback timeout.

To resolve this issue, increase the <rollbackTimeout> value by editing the vpxd.cfg file on the vCenter Server.

Notes: These are the location of the vpxd.cfg file:

• Windows Server 2003 – C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\
• Windows Server 2008/Windows Server 2008 R2 – C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\
• vCenter Server Appliance – /etc/vmware-vpx/

Note: Ensure to take a backup of the vpxd.cfg file prior to making these changes.

To increase the <rollbackTimeout> value in the vpxd.cfg file:

1. Log in with Administrator credentials to the vCenter Server (Windows).
2. Locate the vpxd.cfg file and open with a preferred text editor.
3. Modify the rollbackTimeout value to the desired number. In this example, the timeout value is increased to 120 seconds.
   
   <vpxd>
   <network>
   <rollback>true</rollback>
   <rollbackTimeout>120</rollbackTimeout>
   </network>
   </vpxd>
   
   
4. Restart the VMware VirtualCenter Server service. For more information, see Stopping, starting or restaring VMware vCenter Server services.

Additional Information