Comments on: Virtualizing vCenter With vDS Catch-22

By: Datacenter Dude - @that1guynick

Datacenter Dude - @that1guynick — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:53:55 +0000

[...] found an old post over on @jasonboche‘s blog from back in 2009 talking about this, and it’s something I [...]

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:35:39 +0000

With ESXi41 and vCenter41 when the vCenter is disconnected, a VM that was recovered by HA will respond at ping if it is configured to use vDS41 and Static binding.
In ‘Edit settings’ the network adapter will display ‘invalid backing’ but the traffic is ok.

By: Gary B

Gary B — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:52:43 +0000

Verified the migration of vcenter vm to a distributed switch using the Ephemeral port

By: goldrush

goldrush — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:56:02 +0000

Hi Doug,

at least I can confirm “seeing” the dvportgroup when connected directly to an ESX host when having enabled ephemeral binding before…

Greetings

By: VCAP-DCA Study notes – 2.1 Implement and Manage Complex Virtual Networks | www.vExperienced.co.uk

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:48:13 +0000

[...] Catch-22 for vds and vCentre (Jason Boche) [...]

By: Virtual Distributed Switch (vDS): Clearing it up (to myself).

Virtual Distributed Switch (vDS): Clearing it up (to myself). — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:12:14 +0000

[...] If you have vCenter down AND you need to make a vDS config change to bring it back up (Like, change vCenter’s portgroup), then you may have trouble bouche.net [...]

By: Doug Youd

Doug Youd — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:59:45 +0000

Can anyone confirm Linus T’s assertion that changing to Ephemeral binding on the portgroups will make them visible in the instance of vCenter being down?

By: Migration from vCenter 4.0 to 4.1 – One Geeks Journey… : My Geek Finds

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:28:55 +0000

[...] Virtualizing vCenter With vDS Catch-22 [...]

By: Migrating to vNetwork Distributed Switch in Lab with One pNIC « A Sys Admin Blog

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 19:17:51 +0000

[...] I won’t go over the details (Jason Boche has already done that over here: http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2009/10/09/virtualizing-vcenter-with-vds-catch-22/), but basically, if you run your vCenter as a VM, and you try to migrate your vCenter over to the [...]

By: Design Challenges Of Virtualized vCenter With A vNetwork Distributed Switch – Gestalt IT

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:29:33 +0000

[...] Virtualizing vCenter With vDS Catch-22 is another post that explores what happened after taking down the vCenter VM for a routine migration. “vCenter was shut down and unavailable, therefore, I had connected my vSphere client directly to the ESX4 host in which I transferred the VM to. When trying to configure the vCenter VM to use the vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) port group I had set up for all VM traffic, it was unavailable in the dropdown list of networks. The vCenter server was powered down and thus the vDS Control Plane was unavailable, eliminating my view of vDS networks. [...]

By: VM’s can’t ping while on Distributed Virtual Switching VLAN’s « TheSaffaGeek

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:04:31 +0000

[...] http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2009/10/09/virtualizing-vcenter-with-vds-catch-22/ [...]

By: VM’s can’t ping while on Distributed Virtual Switches VLAN’s « TheSaffaGeek

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:01:32 +0000

[...] http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2009/10/09/virtualizing-vcenter-with-vds-catch-22/ [...]

By: Design Challenges Of Virtualized vCenter With A vNetwork Distributed Switch | VM /ETC

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:41:57 +0000

By: vSphere 4 Update 1 Released | Expert Data Labs Blog

vSphere 4 Update 1 Released | Expert Data Labs Blog — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:01:17 +0000

[...] October 9, 2009 — Virtualizing vCenter With vDS Catch-22 [...]

By: Linus T.

Linus T. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:07:35 +0000

Jason, the solution to this is to turn the port group from the default Static binding to Ephemeral. You’ll then be able to access it when connecting directly to the ESX host and thus, assign your vCenter to it.

Remember, however, that you need to change the binding BEFORE adding VMs to it (so creating 3 port groups, one of each binding, would help in this scenario)