VDS Improvements and Features per Version

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Overview of feature introductions per VDS/DVS version

• Definitions:

  • VDS: Virtual Distributed Switch, also called proxy switch on ESXi host

  • Standard vSwitch: virtual switch on ESXi host, has less options than distributed switch, but no need for having a vCenter to manage.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server

VMware vSphere ESXi

Resolution

Option	Description
Distributed Switch: 9.0.0	Compatible with ESX 9.0.0 and later. New features and enhancements:   Industrial vSwitch. See What is an Industrial vSwitch.
Distributed Switch: 8.0.3	Compatible with ESX 8.0.3 and later. New features and enhancements:   Dual DPU Support. See Network Offloads Compatibility.
Distributed Switch: 8.0.0	Compatible with ESXi 8.0.0 and later. New features and enhancements.   See Network Offloads Compatibility.
Distributed Switch: 7.0.3	Compatible with ESX 7.0.3 and later. New features and enhancements:   NVMe over TCP. See Create a VMkernel Adapter on a vSphere Standard Switch.
Distributed Switch: 7.0.2	Compatible with ESX 7.0.2 and later. New features and enhancements:   LACP fast mode. See LACP Support on a vSphere Distributed Switch.
Distributed Switch: 7.0.0	Compatible with ESX 7.0 and later. New features and enhancements:   NSX distributed port group. See Networking Concepts Overview.
Distributed Switch: 6.6.0	ESXi Compatible with ESXi 6.7 and later. Features released with later vSphere distributed switch versions are not supported. New features and enhancements. MAC Learning.   See What is MAC Learning Policy.

Additional Information

Upgrade a vSphere Distributed Switch to a Later Version