NSX vTEP VMkernel interfaces vmk5/vmk6

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• Host TN Cluster
• ESXi TN vTEPs vmk5/vmk6 
• V2T migration

Environment

VMware NSX

Cause

Those specific hosts were migrated from an older NSX-V environment to NSX-T/NSX using the official V2T (VMware NSX-V to NSX-T) Migration Coordinator.
To make the migration smoother and prevent network disruption, the migration tool deliberately reused the existing VMkernel ports (vmk5/vmk6) that NSX-V was already using.

 

Resolution

New NSX TN Clusters installation will configure the vTEPs with vmk10/vmk11. (It is not possible to edit or rename the vteps interfaces.)

Workaround: To standardize the VMkernel numbers, you would need to perform the following steps on the older clusters:

1. Evacuate the Host: Put the target host into Maintenance Mode to migrate VMs off of it.
2. Unprepare the Host: Remove the NSX configuration from the host/cluster via the NSX Manager. This deletes the old vmk5/vmk6 VTEPs.
3. Prepare the Host: Re-enable NSX on the cluster. The NSX Manager will freshly configure the host and automatically spin up the standard vmk10/vmk11 VTEPs.
4. Exit Maintenance Mode: Bring the host back into production.