ESXi's DVS loses VMNIC uplinks after every reboot post upgrading to 7.x/ 8.x

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi host loses VMNICs as uplinks  post every reboot.
• Issue started ever since the host is upgraded 7.x/8.x.
• ESXi was installed and Uninstalled with NSX in the past.
• A dummy NVDS  in the configstore (less etc/vmware/configstore/less current-store-1)with invalid uplinks "toBeUpgraded" will be noticed and with forwarding_class": "vswitch"

Example :

 ------------------------------------
esx|network_vds|switches|NVDS1|2024-11-15 06:28:28|2024-11-05 09:15:12|2.2|1||{"name": "NVDS1", "uplinks": [{"nic": "vmnic1", "uplink_name": "toBeUpgraded"}, {"nic": "vmnic3", "uplink_name": "toBeUpgraded"}]}|{"name": "NVDS1", "portset_name": "DvsPortset-1"}|||67

esx|network_vds|switch_solutions|NVDS1|2024-11-15 06:28:28|2024-11-05 09:15:12|2.2|1||{"name": "NVDS1", "uuid": "cc 98 6d ba 13 35 4a 96-b2 b4 70 76 44 f7 9b 7d", "configured_max_ports": 64, "uplinks": [{"nic": "vmnic1", "uplink_port_key": "uplink-1", "connection_cookie": 0}, {"nic": "vmnic3", "uplink_port_key": "uplink-2", "connection_cookie": 0}], "product": {"forwarding_class": "vswitch"}}|{"name": "NVDS1", "portset_name": "DvsPortset-1"}|||67  
------------------------------------

Environment

ESXi 7.x / 8.x

Cause

Stale NVDS Entries.

Resolution

Manually clear the NVDS traces from the host.

 

i) Identify the stale NVDS entry by running the command -

 configstorecli config current get -c esx -g network_vds -k switches

Example:

[root@localhost:~] configstorecli config current get -c esx -g network_vds -k switches
[
   {
      "name": "NVDS1", <<<<<<<<<
      "portset_name": "DvsPortset-0",
      "uplinks": [
         {
            "nic": "vmnic1",
            "uplink_name": "Uplink 1"
         }
      ]
   },
   {
      "name": "RealtimeVDS",
      "portset_name": "DvsPortset-1",
      "uplinks": [
         {
            "nic": "vmnic2",
            "uplink_name": "uplink1"
         }
      ]
   }
]

 

ii) Delete it manually by running the command 

configstorecli config current delete -c esx -g network_vds -k switches -i <<NVDS name>>

 

Example:

[root@localhost:~] configstorecli config current delete -c esx -g network_vds -k switches -i NVDS1
Delete: completed successfully.

 

[root@localhost:~] configstorecli config current get -c esx -g network_vds -k switches
[
   {
      "name": "RealtimeVDS",
      "portset_name": "DvsPortset-1",
      "uplinks": [
         {
            "nic": "vmnic2",
            "uplink_name": "uplink1"
         }
      ]
   }
]