Home Lab – Create NSX Distributed Switch

Posted on by Matt Adam

In order for NSX-T to run properly, we need to first create a distributed switch in vCenter and add to it, the esxi hosts. From VMware: NSX Virtual Switch is based on vSphere distributed switches (VDSs), which provide uplinks for host connectivity to the top-of-rack (ToR) physical switches.

Add a distributed switch in vCenter

Open vCenter and navigate to Networks and select the vSAN Datacenter. Then under Actions select Distributed Switch -> New Distributed Switch.
Name the switch NSX
Leave default and click Next
Set uplinks to 1 and leave the rest default. Click Next.
Finish.
You should see the new Distributed Switch.

Add the ESXi hosts to the Distributed Switch

Right click on the newly created distributed switch and click Add and Manage Hosts
Add Hosts. Click Next
Select all the hosts and click Next
Set vmnic2 to Uplink 1
Set vmk3 to use the newly created Portgroup “DPortGroup” in NSX switch. If you don’t see a VMkernel adapter here, then you will need to add one. Don’t reuse the ones for vSAN and vMotion.
Leave default and click Next.
Finish

It will take a couple minutes to add the vds to all the hosts and configure them. Once everything is added, you are ready for the next step.