Upgrading to VCF 9.0 requires Distributed Switch as a minimum requirement/component

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 introduces a mandatory requirement for vSphere Distributed Switches (vDS) for all management networking. Standard switches (VSS) are no longer supported for VMkernel adapters (management, vMotion, vSAN) and will cause upgrade pre-checks to fail.

Symptoms

• VCF 9.0 installer pre-checks fail during network validation.

• SDDC Manager reporting "Detected standard switches in use by host."

• Inventory synchronization fails with errors indicating VSS presence.

• Brownfield import tools halt during the validation phase.

Environment

• VMware Cloud Foundation 8.x upgrading to 9.x.

• vSphere 8.x environments using vSphere Standard Switches (VSS).

Cause

VCF 9.0 relies on API-driven automation for networking and security via SDDC Manager and NSX. VSS lacks the necessary automation APIs to programmatically manage traffic policies, security groups, and centralized networking across the SDDC stack.

Resolution

1. Environment Audit: Verify existing VLAN IDs and teaming policies on the Standard Switch (vSS). Check if the physical switch ports are configured for LACP or static EtherChannel.

2. Create vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS): Configure the vDS in vCenter with the same MTU and Discovery Protocol (CDP/LLDP) settings as the source vSS.

3. Port Group Configuration:

   • Create dvPortgroups matching every VLAN currently on the vSS.

   • Mandatory: Create a dedicated Ephemeral port group for vCenter Server management to prevent circular dependencies.

   • Ensure Teaming and Failover policies match the physical link configuration (e.g., set to "Route based on IP hash" only if using static LAG/EtherChannel).

4. Physical Adapter (vmnic) Migration:

   • If hosts have multiple redundant uplinks, migrate one vmnic at a time to the vDS to maintain management connectivity.

   • Warning: If LACP is in use, you must configure a Link Aggregation Group (LAG) on the vDS and migrate all member vmnics in accordance with vCenter network connectivity lost - Recover vCenter network when connected to a Distributed Switch

5. VM and VMkernel Migration:

   • Migrate VMkernel adapters (Management, vMotion, vSAN) to the corresponding dvPortgroups.

   • Migrate all Virtual Machine network adapters to the new dvPortgroups.

6. Validation: Verify end-to-end connectivity for all migrated services before decommissioning the legacy Standard Switches.

Additional Information

• SDDC Manager and NSX (which is a core component of VCF) rely on the VDS to programmatically manage networking, security, and traffic policies across the entire stack.

• Standard switches (VSS) do not support the APIs and centralized management that VCF automation requires.

• Static (non-ephemeral) or ephemeral port binding on a vSphere Distributed Switch (KB 324492)
• Moving vCenter Server to an ephemeral port group on a VDS (KB 426300)
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