VMware: virtual Standard Switch management with PowerCLI

Virtual Standard Switch (vSS) management is simple, it can be done using vSphere Flex Client or classic vSphere C# Client. vSS management using PowerCLI is even simplier: deployment, removal and customization of vSS, VMKernels, VM PortGroups can be achieved within seconds.
A big advantage of using PowerCLI is that we can perform automatically vSS implementation/customization across multiple hosts without having to browse host by host using vSphere Client.

This is an introductory post in which I will explain the basics of vSS management, what PowerCLI cmdlet to use for each vSS related activity. I will soon come up with another article providing a PowerCLI script to automate vSS provisioning in a real case scenario.

As usual let's have a look at official PowerCLI Documentation first.

Let's begin: how to create a virtual standard switch? New-VirtualSwitch cmdlet is used, 192.168.116.60 in the example below is the IP address of the ESXi host on which I will add vSwitch1.

 New-VirtualSwitch -VMHost (Get-VMHost 192.168.116.60) -Name vSwitch1 -Nic vmnic1,vmnic2  

A new vSS vSwitch1 with no associated PortGroups will be created.

To create a VMKernel the New-VMHostNetworkAdapter cmdlet is used. Since a VMKernel can be associated to a specific traffic (Management, FaultTolerance, VSAN, vMotion) we need to specify what we will use this VMKernel for. In this example I will create a vMotion VMKernel for vSwitch1 and I will assign 192.168.116.61 IP Address to it and set MTU to 9000 bytes (JumboFrames). Please note that by default every VMKernel traffic binding is set to false so setting, for example, -ManagementTrafficEnabled:$false is  worthless.

 New-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost (Get-VMHost -Name 192.168.116.60) -PortGroup vMotion -VirtualSwitch vSwitch1 -IP 192.168.116.61 -SubnetMask 255.255.255.0 -FaultToleranceLoggingEnabled:$false -ManagementTrafficEnabled:$false -VsanTrafficEnabled:$false -VMotionEnabled:$true -Mtu 9000  

A VMKernel for vMotion has just been created.

Next step is how to change VMKernel properties such as load balancing policy or active/standby/unused vmnics. This is done with Set-NicTeamingPolicy cmdlet.

In this example I set vMotion VMKernel load balancing policy to Route based on source MAC hash (not for a specific reason but just for article purpouses), mark vmnic1 as active and vmnic2 as standby.

 Get-VirtualPortGroup -VMHost (Get-VMHost -Name 192.168.116.60) -Name vMotion | Get-NicTeamingPolicy | Set-NicTeamingPolicy -LoadBalancingPolicy LoadBalanceSrcMac -MakeNicActive vmnic1 -MakeNicStandby vmnic2  

As expected changes will be reported in vSphere Web Client.

Let's now create a VM PortGroup using New-VirtualPortGroup cmdlet. To this PortGroup will be assigned VLAN ID 100.

 New-VirtualPortGroup -Name "VM Network 2" -VirtualSwitch vSwitch1 -VLanId 100  

As final step how to add a new vmnic to a vSwitch. AddVirtualSwitchPhysicalNetworkAdapter cmdlet is used.

 Get-VirtualSwitch -VMHost (Get-VMHost -Name 192.168.116.60) -Name vSwitch1 | AddVirtualSwitchPhysicalNetworkAdapter -VMHostPhysicalNic (Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -Physical -Name vmnic3) -Confirm:$false  

Let's now reverse the process. Remove-VirtualSwitchPhysicalNetworkAdapter cmdlet is used to remove a vmnic from a vSwitch.

 Get-VMHost -Name 192.168.116.60 | Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -Physical -Name vmnic3 | Remove-VirtualSwitchPhysicalNetworkAdapter -Confirm:$false  

Remove-VirtualPortGroup cmdlet is used to remove a VM PortGroup.

 Remove-VirtualPortGroup -VirtualPortGroup (Get-VirtualPortGroup -Name "VM Network 2") -Confirm:$false  

To remove a VMKernel without incurring in "Remove-VirtualPortGroup The resource '<VMKernel_Name>' is in use." error you have to remove the vmknic currently being used by VMKernel.

 Remove-VMHostNetworkAdapter -Nic (Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost (Get-VMHost -Name 192.168.116.60) | where {$_.PortGroupName -eq "vMotion"}) -Confirm:$false  

VMKernel will be now recognized as a simple PortGroup that can be removed with Remove-VirtualPortGroup cmdlet:

 Remove-VirtualPortGroup -VirtualPortGroup (Get-VirtualPortGroup -Name vMotion) -Confirm:$false  

Finally to delete the entire vSwitch use Remove-VirtualSwitch cmdlet.

 Remove-VirtualSwitch -VirtualSwitch (Get-VirtualSwitch -VMHost 192.168.116.60 | where {$_.Name -eq "vSwitch1"}) -Confirm:$false  

That's all!!