Deans Blog

In order to create a virtual standard switch (vSS) we can use the vSphere Web Client or alternatively we can use the esxcli namespace to achieve this. In this example I will create a single vSS by connecting to the console session of an ESXi host with the following requirements:

• Create a vSS named vSwitch1 with 128 configured ports
• Allow the vSS to enter promiscuous mode.
• Add uplink vmnic1
• Add the portgroup ‘Test’ with a VLAN id of ’10’.

Firstly, we will create the vSS named ‘vSwitch 1′ with a total of ‘128′ ports and allow the vSS to enter promiscuous mode.

esxcli network vswitch standard add -P 128 -v vSwitch1
esxcli network vswitch standard policy security set -p true -v vSwitch1

Now we will add the uplink ‘vmnic1‘ to the vSS.

esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add -u vmnic1 -v vSwitch1

Finally we will create a port group named ‘Test‘ and set a VLAN id of ‘10‘ for the vSS.

esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup add -p Test -v vSwitch1
esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup set -p Test -v 10

We can view the vSS we have just created by invoking ‘esxcli network vswitch standard list -v vSwitch1‘ and confirm the security policy configuration by invoking ‘esxcli network vswitch standard policy security get -v vSwitch1‘.

vSwitch1
 Name: vSwitch1
 Class: etherswitch
 Num Ports: 1536
 Used Ports: 1
 Configured Ports: 128
 MTU: 1500
 CDP Status: listen
 Beacon Enabled: false
 Beacon Interval: 1
 Beacon Threshold: 3
 Beacon Required By:
 Uplinks: vmnic1 
 Portgroups: Test

 Allow Promiscuous: true
 Allow MAC Address Change: true
 Allow Forged Transmits: true