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

• 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:
  
  TDD:HH:MM.SS [27B8##70 verbose 'Hostsvc' opID=D82926F9-########-17-c5 user=vpxuser] Invoking transaction 440 method updateNetworkConfig
TDD:HH:MM.SS [2608##70 verbose 'Hostsvc' opID=D82926F9-########-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 7.0 and later.

Resolution

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.

 

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

 

SSH as the root user to the vCenter Server Appliance and run the following command :

• cp /etc/vmware-vpx/vpxd.cfg /storage/core

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

1. Log in with the root user name to the vCenter Server SSH session.
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 vCenter Server service.

         service-control --stop --all && service-control --start --all