ESXi creates standard switch vSwitchBMC with uplink vusb0 automatically after upgrading to 8.0.3 version

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Starting with vSphere 8.0, in both Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) and HP Integrated Lights Out (ILO), when a USB interface is enabled, vUSB or vNIC respectively, an additional standard switch vSwitchBMC with uplink vusb0 gets created on the ESXi host.

After upgrading to ESXi 8.0.3 version, it will show follow configuration and error:

1. ESXi creates standard switch vSwitchBMC with uplink vusb0 automatically.
2. ESXi adds uplink vusb0 on standard switch and creates a new vmkernel port on vSwitch automatically which will make related standard switch become exception.
   • The related standard switch will not create/delete vmkernel port or port group normally.
   • The new vmkernel doesn't have an IP address.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 

Cause

This is expected, in view of the introduction of data processing units (DPUs) on some servers but might cause the VMware Cloud Foundation Bring-Up process to fail.

Resolution

Workaround:

Before vSphere 8.0 installation, disable the USB interface in the host's remote management application (eg: iDRAC, iLO, etc.) by following vendor documentation.

After vSphere 8.0 installation, use the ESXCLI command esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /Net/BMCNetworkEnable to prevent the creation of a virtual switch vSwitchBMC and associated portgroups on the next reboot of host.

See this script as an example:

~# esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /Net/BMCNetworkEnable

The value of BMCNetworkEnable is 0 and the service is disabled.

~# reboot

On host reboot, no virtual switch, PortGroup and VMKNIC are created in the host related to remote management application network.

Note: On systems with DPUs, vSwitchBMC and associated portgroups are required for DPU management. DO NOT "Disable vSwitchBMC creation" using ESXCLI command esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /Net/BMCNetworkEnable

Additional Information

Refer to VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 3 Release Notes

 

Note - the following applies to on reboots to a host with vUSB or Virtual Nic enabled:

-BMC will take the first available vmknic 
-Even if BMC is present on another vmknic, upon reboot it will take the first available vmknic