Virtual machines lose connectivity due to Etherswitch properties "com.vmware.etherswitch.port.vlan"

Products

• VMware NSX
• VMware NSX Data Center for vSphere
• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware NSX-T Data Center

Issue/Introduction

• VMs lose connectivity when migrated from NSX-V prepared hosts to NSX-T prepared hosts.
• VM is not using NSX overlay and is sitting on a VLAN backed PG on a vDS.
• On the NSX-V ESXi hosts, "com.vmware.etherswitch.port.vlan" property on "net-dvs -l" will be seen for the virtual machines.

net-dvs_-l
       port #####:
               com.vmware.common.port.portgroupid = dvportgroup-##### , propType = CONFIG
                com.vmware.common.port.block = false , propType = CONFIG
               com.vmware.etherswitch.port.vlan = VLAN ###
               com.vmware.common.port.volatile.status = inUse linkUp portID=######## propType = RUNTIME
       port #####:
               com.vmware.common.port.portgroupid = dvportgroup-###### , propType = CONFIG
                com.vmware.common.port.block = false , propType = CONFIG
               com.vmware.etherswitch.port.vlan = VLAN ####
               com.vmware.common.port.volatile.status = inUse linkUp portID=######## propType = RUNTIME

 

• This issue could also be seen when a vSphere setup upgrades the VDS from a version of or earlier than 6.5 to a version later than 7.0 and then migrate the VMs on VLAN DVPGs to NSXT hosts.

Environment

VMware NSX-T Data Center

VMware NSX

VMware NSX Data Center for vSphere

VMware vSphere ESXi

 

 

 

 

Cause

• Etherswitch properties "com.vmware.etherswitch.port.vlan" are not recognized on the NSX-T.
• The 'com.vmware.etherswitch.port.vlan' property gets configured on the NSX-T side.
• NSX-V supports both properties while NSXT supports only com.vmware.vswitch.port.vlan

Resolution

Option #1: Disconnect and reconnect the ESXi host from VC

Option #2: Re-configure the problematic VMs to a different port group and then reconfigure it back to the original port group

• Identify all the affected VMs on the NSX-V ESXi hosts using below command:

 net-dvs -l | egrep "^switch|port .*:$|com.vmware.common.port.volatile.status|com.vmware.etherswitch.port.vlan =" | grep com.vmware.etherswitch.port.vlan -A 1 -B 1 | grep portID | cut -d "=" -f3 | cut -d " " -f 1

• Identify the PortGroups that affected VMs are using
• Create a new PortGroups with the same settings
• Re-configure the problematic VMs to the newly created PortGroups with the same settings.
• If needed, reconfigure it back to the original port group.