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NIC teaming using EtherChannel leads to intermittent network connectivity in ESXi (1022751)

Details

When trying to team NICs using EtherChannel, the network connectivity is disrupted on an ESXi host. This issue occurs because NIC teaming properties do not propagate to the Management Network portgroup in ESXi.

When you configure the ESXi host for NIC teaming by setting the Load Balancing to Route based on ip hash, this configuration is not propagated to Management Network portgroup.

Solution

Workaround
 
Note: To reduce the chance of network connection loss please change the vSwitch load balancing to Route based on IP hash using this method
  1. Shutdown all ports in the team from the physical switch leaving a single port as active.
  2. Change the load balancing to Route based on ip hash on the vSwitch and Management Portgroup.
  3. Configure the port channel on the physical switch.
  4. Enable the ports on the physical switch.
Notes: Using this method will prevent a connection loss when changing to a port channel. Also make sure that under the portgroup properties for vmk# used for management network you check mark the box "Enabled".  
 
 
If you have already changed the vSwitch load balancing to Route based on IP hash, then set the same for Management Network portgroup. 
  1. Login to Virtual Center/vCenter Server using VI/ vSphere Client.
  2. Select the ESXi Server host.
  3. Click the Configuration tab.
  4. Click the Networking link.
  5. Click Properties link for the management network portgroup.
  6. Highlight the virtual switch in the Ports tab and click Edit.
  7. Click the NIC Teaming tab.
  8. Choose Route based on IP hash from the Load Balancing dropdown menu.
  9. Verify that there are two or more network adapters listed under Active Adapters.

Use these commands if the host does not stay connected to vCenter Server after the vSwitch load balancing policy change:

# vim-cmd hostsvc/net/vswitch_setpolicy --nicteaming-policy=loadbalance_ip vSwitch0
# vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicteaming-policy=loadbalance_ip vSwitch0 "Management Network" 
 
 
 
Additional Information:
For translated versions of this article, see:
Portuguese: Agregação de NIC com os terminais EtherChannel para conectividade de rede intermitente no ESXi (2032320)

Update History

10/09/2010 - Added commands to run if the host does not stay connected to vCenter Server after the vSwitch load balancing policy change

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