Versions of HCX before 3.5.1 experiencing Interoperability issues with vDS 7.0 in vSphere 7

Products

• VMware HCX

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
If you have already upgraded to a 7.0 vDS you may see the following in versions of HCX before 3.5.1:

• After upgrading the Distributed Switch (vDS) to 7.0 you receive errors like:
  • "Cannot migrate <VM name> using selected migration as it is connected to port group on distributed switch of version 7.0.0"

Cause

vMotion, Cold Migration, and RAV features in versions of HCX before 3.5.1 are not supported on vDS 7.0.  

Those versions have issues working with the new vDS 7.0 switch in vSphere 7.

Resolution

The resolution is to upgrade to HCX 3.5.1 or newer

Workaround:
Use vDS 6.6 as the highest vSwitch version before HCX 3.5.1.

Because a vDS cannot be downgraded gracefully, the vDS must be recreated as a vDS 6.6 or earlier in order to restore connectivity to HCX infrastructure. 

This may involve HCX or VM downtime depending on the architecture. 

Warning, if you are using a LAG on the hosts contact VMware Support Networking team for assistance as the process is different.

1. Create new vDS as version 6.5 or 6.6
   1. Ensure that the MTU matches the value for the existing vDS 
      1. Networking > Configure > Settings > Properties > Edit
      2. In the Advanced section verify the MTU value
2. Add the required hosts to the new vDS and move one physical NIC to the new vDS
   1. Right click on the new vDS and select Add and Manage Hosts  
   2. Select Add hosts 
   3. On the Select hosts page, click New hosts, select from the hosts in your data center, click OK, and then click Next.
   4. On the Select network adapter tasks page, select the tasks for configuring network adapters to the distributed switch and click Next
   5. On the Manage physical network adapters page, configure physical NICs on the distributed switch. 
   6. From the On other switches/unclaimed list, select a physical NIC.
      1.  If you select physical NICs that are already connected to other switches, they are migrated to the current distributed switch.
   7. Click Assign uplink.
   8. On the Manage VMkernel adapters, click next
   9. Click Finish
3. Recreate all required port groups on the new vDS
   1. On the vSphere Client Home page, click Networking and navigate to the distributed switch.
   2. Right-click the distributed switch and select Distributed port group > New distributed port group.
   3. On the Name and location page, enter the name of the new distributed port group, or accept the generated name, and click Next
   4. Ensure the VLAN matches the existing port group
4. Migrate the VMs from the old 7.0 vDS to the new 6.5/6.6 vDS
   1. the vSphere Client, navigate to a data center.
   2. Right-click the data center in the navigator and select Migrate VMs to Another Network.
   3. Select a source network.
   4. Use Browse to select a destination network and click Next.
   5. Select virtual machines from the list to migrate from the source network to the destination network and click Next.
   6. Review your selections and click Finish.

From here verify all of the HCX services have been moved in to the new vDS
Reconfigure the HCX Services to use the new 6.5/6.6 vDS

1. the HCX Network Profile 
2. In the HCX Manager:
3. Navigate to the Network Profiles interface:
   1. the vSphere Client, navigate To HCX > Interconnect > Multi-Site Service Mesh > Network Profiles.
   2. At the destination site, navigate to https://hcx-cloud-ip-or-fqdn > Multi-Site Service Mesh > Network Profiles
   3.  Edit the Netowrk profile 
   4.  Select a vCenter Server and existing Network.
   5. Select a vCenter Server from the drop-down menu.
   6. Select Distributed Port Group, Standard Switch Port Group, or NSX Logical Switch to filter the available networks by type.
   7. Select the copy of the original network on the new vDS
4. Unextend all networks and update any Network Extensions to the new vDS as needed 
   1. This will redeploy the NE appliances to the new vDS
5. Reconfigure the IX Migration Service to use the new vDS

Once all workloads have been moved to the new vDS, move the last of the physical NICs to the new vDS 

1. From vCenter
2. Right click on the new vDS and select Add and Manage Hosts
3. Select Manage host networking
4. On the Select hosts page, click Attached hosts, select from the hosts that are associated with the distributed switch and click OK
5. Click Next
6. On the Manage physical adapters page, select a physical NIC from the On other switches/unclaimed list to assign an uplink to the adapter
7. Select all remaining pNICs from the 7.0 vDS