The below information details why vmknics connected to NSX portgroups display Uplinks \ LAGs as 'Unused Uplinks' under 'Teaming and Failover' in vCenter UI.
1. vSphere and NSX Portgroups
- vSphere portgroups are created by a vSphere user who can change the teaming policy of the vSphere portgroup from vCenter UI.
- NSX portgroups are craeted in NSX Manager and pushed to vCenter UI automatically. The vSphere user can associate vmknics or VMs to NSX portgroups from vCenter UI.
- NSX portgroups share the same constructure as a vSphere portgroup.
- However, by design a number of properties remain unset in vCenter when an NSX porgroup is created. This includes the NSX portgroup teaming policy.
2. vCenter UI vmknic "Teaming and Failover" Logic
- vCenter confirms which portgroup the vmknic is connected to. vCenter then obtains and displays the portgroups teaming policy.
- If a vmknic is connected to a vSphere portgroup, the vCenter UI teaming policy output is reliable because the vSphere portgroup teaming policy is set in in vCenter.
- If a vmknic is connected to a NSX portgroup, the vCenter UI teaming policy output is unreliable because the NSX portgroup teaming policy is unset in in vCenter:
- The NSX portgroup will display all uplinks as unused a result.
- All 'Teaming and Failover' properties such as "Active Uplinks", "Standby Uplinks", "Unused Uplinks" are unreliable
3. Why NSX Portgroup Teaming Policies are Unset in vCenter
- The teaming policies in vCenter and NSX do not share the same constructure, meaning they cannot be mapped.
- In vCenter, the teaming policy is applied to vSphere portgroups which span across hosts (identical teaming policy on all hosts).
- In NSX, the teaming policy is defined in the uplink profile and an uplink profile is applied on a single host:
VMware vCenter 8.0 Update 3 will hide the below 'Policies' tab for NSX portgroups:
vCenter UI: Host > Configure > Networking > VMKernel Adapters - Select [VMKNIC NUNMBER] - 'Policies' tab