Standard or Distributed Switch changes fail with the error "A specified parameter was not correct"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• In vCenter, operations to modify portgroups, add/remove pNics, or modify Teaming policies on a vSS or vDS fail with the error: 
   "A specified parameter was not correct"
  
  
• Unable to modify or add a gateway of a TCP/IP Stack.
• "Invalid NIC" errors are seen in hostd.log: 

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.417Z info hostd[2099563] [Originator@6876 sub=Vimsvc.TaskManager opID=kxaqfuni-78739569-auto-1avnwu-h5:73869704-7e-e5-cb5c user=vpxuser:Domain\Username] Task Created : haTask-ha-host-vim.host.NetworkSystem.invokeHostTransactionCall-3917783281
2022-04-12T04:28:47.418Z info hostd[2099426] [Originator@6876 sub=Hostsvc opID=kxaqfuni-78739569-auto-1avnwu-h5:73869704-7e-e5-cb5c user=vpxuser:Domain\Username] UpdateNetwork with Config: (vim.host.NetworkConfig) {
-->    proxySwitch = (vim.host.HostProxySwitch.Config) [
-->       (vim.host.HostProxySwitch.Config) {
-->          changeOperation = "edit",
…
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.440Z info hostd[2099426] [Originator@6876 sub=Hostsvc opID=kxaqfuni-78739569-auto-1avnwu-h5:73869704-7e-e5-cb5c user=vpxuser:Domain\Username] Invalid NIC order: one of more PNIC specified are not uplinked to vswitch.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.440Z info hostd[2099426] [Originator@6876 sub=Hostsvc opID=kxaqfuni-78739569-auto-1avnwu-h5:73869704-7e-e5-cb5c user=vpxuser:Domain\Username] Invalid NIC teaming policy: invalid NIC order specified.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.440Z info hostd[2099426] [Originator@6876 sub=Hostsvc opID=kxaqfuni-78739569-auto-1avnwu-h5:73869704-7e-e5-cb5c user=vpxuser:Domain\Username] Invalid network policy: invalid NIC teaming policy.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.440Z info hostd[2099426] [Originator@6876 sub=Hostsvc.NetworkVmkSimulator opID=kxaqfuni-78739569-auto-1avnwu-h5:73869704-7e-e5-cb5c user=vpxuser:Domain\Username] Cannot set policy for vswitch [vSwitchUSB0], network policy is invalid: (vim.host.NetworkPolicy) {

• In the vmware-vimdump output, you might see "bridge = <unset>"

                     (vim.host.VirtualSwitch) {
                        dynamicType = <unset>,
                        dynamicProperty = (vmodl.DynamicProperty) [],
                        name = 'vSwitchUSB0',
                        key = 'key-vim.host.VirtualSwitch-vSwitchUSB0',
                        numPorts = 4350,
                        numPortsAvailable = 4327,
                        mtu = 1500,
                        portgroup = (Link) [
                           'key-vim.host.PortGroup-IMM_Network0'
                        ],
                        pnic = (Link) [],
                        spec = (vim.host.VirtualSwitch.Specification) {
                           dynamicType = <unset>,
                           dynamicProperty = (vmodl.DynamicProperty) [],
                           numPorts = 128,
                           bridge = <unset>,   <-------- Here

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 
VMware vSphere vCenter

Cause

If NetworkSystem.invokeHostTransactionCall is called to make changes to a vSS or vDS while there is a configuration issue with vSwitchUSB0, the change operation will fail.  In this particular case, vusb0 did not exist on bootup.
 
Syslog.log: 
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.548Z jumpstart[2097601]: VirtualSwitch: Unable to restore uplink vusb0  of virtual swtich vSwitchUSB0. Reason was Unable to find mapping for vusb0:
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.549Z jumpstart[2097601]: PortGroup: NIC vusb0 does not exist
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.549Z jumpstart[2097601]: PortGroup: NIC vusb0 does not exist
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.550Z jumpstart[2097601]: PortGroup: Unable to find mapping for vusb0
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.550Z jumpstart[2097601]: PortGroup: Not a valid pnic:  for teaming on portgroup: IMM_Network0
 
Vobd.log: 
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.731Z: [UserLevelCorrelator] 91443881us: [vob.user.host.boot] Host has booted.

Resolution

• Try re-adding vusb0 to vSwitchUSB0: 

esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add --uplink-name="vusb0" --vswitch-name="vSwitchUSB0" 
 

• In similar cases, toggling the vSwitchUSB0/vusb0 Teaming policy from Active to Standby or Unused (or vice versa) has been known to work. 
• Remove vSwitchUSB0.  If it repopulates, please contact your hardware vendor on how to properly disable the vUSB device.

esxcli network vswitch standard remove --vswitch-name=vSwitchUSB0