Creating a standard portgroups on an ESXi host via vCenter / ESXi GUI fails with error message "Failed to create port group *port group name"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0

Issue/Introduction

• Creating a standard portgroups on an ESXi host via vCenter / ESXi GUI fails with below error message: 
  

  "Failed to create port group *port group name"

• Issue is seen while creating a portgroup on any vSwitch in that host.
• Creating a portgroup from CLI works as expected
• Logs similar to below logs get logged in Hostd of the host
  

  2024-07-16T23:50:18.864Z info hostd[2100966] [Originator@6876 sub=Hostsvc opID=esxui-7675-c361 user=root] Invalid network policy: there are unset properties in network security policy.
  2024-07-16T23:50:18.864Z info hostd[2100966] [Originator@6876 sub=Hostsvc.NetworkVmkSimulator opID=esxui-7675-c361 user=root] Cannot set policy for vswitch [vSwitch6-PG-C9200-1-GE1/0/46], network policy is invalid: (vim.host.NetworkPolicy) {
  -->    security = (vim.host.NetworkPolicy.SecurityPolicy) {
  -->    },
  -->    nicTeaming = (vim.host.NetworkPolicy.NicTeamingPolicy) {
  -->       failureCriteria = (vim.host.NetworkPolicy.NicFailureCriteria) {
  -->       },
  -->    },
  -->    offloadPolicy = (vim.host.NetOffloadCapabilities) {
  -->    },
  -->    shapingPolicy = (vim.host.NetworkPolicy.TrafficShapingPolicy) {
  -->    }
  --> }.
  2024-07-16T23:50:18.865Z info hostd[2100966] [Originator@6876 sub=Hostsvc opID=esxui-7675-c361 user=root] Simulate failed
  2024-07-16T23:50:18.865Z info hostd[2100966] [Originator@6876 sub=AdapterServer opID=esxui-7675-c361 user=root] AdapterServer caught exception; <<52908b7b-3431-61a4-2211-ff00c121d86e, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 8307'>, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 29749'>>, networkSystem, vim.host.NetworkSystem.updateNetworkConfig>, N5Vmomi5Fault15InvalidArgument9ExceptionE(Fault cause: vmodl.fault.InvalidArgument
  --> )
  --> [context]zKq7AVICAgAAAAyiTgENaG9zdGQAANJCF2xpYnZtYWNvcmUuc28AAfhmT2hvc3RkAAFjTFABHwCXAVIilwFhI5eC2jwZAWxpYnZpbS10eXBlcy5zbwABSptSAMzHLQBUAy4AAhE/Azt9AGxpYnB0aHJlYWQuc28uMAAEbdEObGliYy5zby42AA==[/context]
  2024-07-16T23:50:18.869Z info hostd[2100966] [Originator@6876 sub=Vimsvc.TaskManager opID=esxui-7675-c361 user=root] Task Completed : haTask-ha-host-vim.host.NetworkSystem.updateNetworkConfig-105750 Status error
  2024-07-16T23:50:18.869Z info hostd[2100966] [Originator@6876 sub=Solo.Vmomi opID=esxui-7675-c361 user=root] Activation finished; <<52908b7b-3431-61a4-2211-ff00c121d86e, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 8307'>, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 29749'>>, networkSystem, vim.host.NetworkSystem.updateNetworkConfig>
  2024-07-16T23:50:18.869Z verbose hostd[2100966] [Originator@6876 sub=Solo.Vmomi opID=esxui-7675-c361 user=root] Arg config:
  --> (vim.host.NetworkConfig) {
  -->    portgroup = (vim.host.PortGroup.Config) [
  -->       (vim.host.PortGroup.Config) {
  -->          changeOperation = "add",
  -->          spec = (vim.host.PortGroup.Specification) {
  -->             name = "C4500X-te1/22-V120_yuzmorit",
  -->             vlanId = 230,
  -->             vswitchName = "vSwitch6-PG-C9200-1-GE1/0/46",
  -->             policy = (vim.host.NetworkPolicy) {
  -->                security = (vim.host.NetworkPolicy.SecurityPolicy) {
  -->                   allowPromiscuous = true,
  -->                   macChanges = true,
  -->                   forgedTransmits = true
  -->                },
  -->             }
  -->          }
  -->       }
  -->    ],
  --> }

Environment

ESXi host version 7.x

Cause

• Host has a Virtual Standard Switch name with special characters like ' ? / \ * ' .
• There is a bug in ESXi's code in handling a host with a Virtual Standard Switch with special characters in its name.

Resolution

• It is a known issue on ESXi 7.0.3.
• To resolve the issue, you can remove the Virtual Standard Switches which has a special character in its name by migrating all the VMs to newly created VSS without any such special characters.
• If removing such vSwitches is not possible, contact Broadcom support.
• Broadcom will provide a script to rename the existing vSwitches without any special characters.