How to Create a vSphere Distributed Switch on vMware vSphere 7

I found it tedious when i need to add a new port group setting on ESXI Host A, i have to do the same manually to EXSI Host B,C,D,E and F, if i have 10 EXSI hosts the same tedious process has to be done on all of them, if you don't do this, when a virtual machines migrates using Vmotion from one host to another it will not be able to connect to the network because the network settings on the virtual standard switch don't match the virtual standard switch on the Host it came from.

To prevent this repetitive task the virtual Distributed switch was introduced to solve the problem basically what the virtual Distributed switch does allows you to configure a single standard switch and it uses that standard switch as a template to apply or push the same settings to all the Hosts connected to the Distributed switch.

This guide will only show the process of creating a Distributed switch, we are assuming the vCenter is setup and virtual Datacenter created

       License 

• Login to the vSphere Client on the browser and on the left hand side menu tab hover the mouse and select Host and Cluster and right click on the Datacenter to open up the menu.

• On the menu select Distributed Switch  and click on New Distributed Switch

• On the New Distributed Switch box, give the distributed switch a name, the DSwitch1 is the default, click next.

On this step check the version of all your  EXSI hosts, if all of them are running the same version of EXSI host check the Compatibility Matrix to see which version of distributed switch is compatible with your Host. if your have different versions of EXSI hosts the lowest version number will be used. example  :  Host A ( EXSI 6.7 ),  Host B ( ESXI 6.7 )  and Host C ( ESXI 6.5 )  on this example Host C has the lowest version, its version 6.5 will used instead of Host A and Host B

vSphere Distributed Switch and EXSI host compatibility matrix

            

• Select the version of EXSI host you have need to add to the Distributed switch, click next.

• Set the Number of uplinks links you want on the distributed switch, this depends on the number of physical nic of your server / machine.  if you Enable Network I/O Control this will dynamically allocated and distribute resources like bandwidth to resources like VMs that need them. Select the Create a default port group to create a distributed port group and provide a name on the Port group name , click next.

• Review the setting a click Finish

• Check the Topology of your vSphere Distributed Switch, navigate back to the top left hand side of the vCenter and select the Networking tab, on the left hand side menu find the Distributed switch you just created and select it to bring up the Configure tab, then look for Settings and select Topology.

• Congratulations your have create a vSphere Distributed Switch.