How to determine switch(VDS/N-VDS/CVDS) versions from ESXi command line

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the necessary commands to identify the versions of switches (VDS, N-VDS, or CVDS) configured on an ESXi host. It also includes a reference table to correlate the hexadecimal output from the command line with the actual product version.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi

Resolution

1. Identify Switch Version via CLI

To pull the switch version details, log in to the ESXi shell via SSH and run the following command:

# net-dvs -l | grep "alias\|com.vmware.common.version"

2. Understanding the Output

The command returns a hexadecimal value. For example: com.vmware.common.version = 0x a. 0

Use the following tables to map that hexadecimal value to the corresponding VDS or NSX-T version.

Standard VDS Version Correlation

VDS Version	Hexadecimal Value in net-dvs -l
5.0	0x 1. 0. 0. 0
5.1	0x 2. 0. 0. 0
5.5	0x 3. 0. 0. 0
6.0	0x 4. 0. 0. 0
6.5	0x 5. 0. 0. 0
6.6	0x 6. 0. 0. 0
7.0 (GA)	0x 7. 0
7.0 U2	0x 8. 0
7.0 U3	0x 9. 0
8.0 (GA)	0x a. 0
8.0.3	0x c. 0

 

NSX-T / N-VDS / CVDS Version Correlation

Version / Type	Hexadecimal Value in net-dvs -l
NVDS (NSX 1.0)	0x64. 0. 0. 0
7.0 (NSX-T enabled VDS)	0x6b
7.0.2 (NSX-T on VDS)	0x6c
7.0.3 (NSX-T on VDS)	0x6d
NSX-T vSwitch Type	0x6e
8.0.0 (NSX-T Type)	0x6c