VMWARE ESXI Virtual Networking

To configure Virtual Switch (vSwitch) VLAN Tagging (VST) on an ESXi/ESX host:

1. Assign a VLAN to a portgroup(s). The supported VLAN range is 1-4094.
   Reserved VLAN IDs:
   
   • VLAN ID 0 (zero) Disables VLAN tagging on port group (EST Mode)
   • VLAN ID 4095 Enables trunking on port group (VGT Mode)
     
2. Set the switch NIC teaming policy to Route based on originating virtual port ID (this is set by default).

To configure the physical switch settings:

1. Define ESXi/ESX VLANs on the physical switch.
2. Allow the proper range to the ESXi/ESX host.
3. Set the physical port connection between the ESXi/ESX host and the physical switch to TRUNK mode. ESXi/ESX only supports IEEE 802.1Q (dot1q) trunking.
   
   
   • Physical switch is set to TRUNK mode
   • dot1q encapsulation is enabled
   • Spanning-tree is set to portfast trunk (for example, port forwarding, skips other modes)
   • Define VLAN interface
   • Assign IP Range to VLAN interface
   • VLAN Routing – and VLAN Isolation
     
     Caution: Native VLAN ID on ESXi/ESX VST Mode is not supported. Do not assign a VLAN to a port group that is same as the native VLAN ID of the physical switch. Native VLAN packets are not tagged with the VLAN ID on the outgoing traffic toward the ESXi/ESX host. Therefore, if the ESXi/ESX host is set to VST mode, it drops the packets that are lacking a VLAN tag.