This article provides clarification on VMware Support for Partner Switches integrated through vSphere and NSX-T Public APIs.

VMware support desires a demarcation point to effectuate changes on the distributed switch without affecting other infrastructure switching and connectivity. This demarcation point is required to avoid causing a customer to experience a distorted configuration between the vSphere distributed virtual switch and the control and data planes of a partner switch when manipulating the distributed switch to troubleshoot issues. Most automation tools do not create a configuration link between the vSphere distributed switch and the physical switches. 

In cases where there is no clear demarcation line,* VMware will require the following two steps to troubleshoot or manage issues related to vSphere, NSX-T, or NSX environments. VMware will request the creation of an environment free of the partner component in question** for troubleshooting purposes per the support policy for third-party integrations. https://www.vmware.com/support/policies/thirdparty.html.

·     If the issue is reproducible without the partner component, VMware will support and investigate as normal.
·     If the issue is not reproducible after removing the partner component, VMware will not investigate further. At this point, Customer Support at the partner should be contacted.

*One such partner integration that has no clear demarcation point is the Cisco ACI VMM integration and other related Cisco ACI integrations leveraging the vSphere and NSX-T APIs. Due to the operational nature this integration, VMware will require the steps described above to troubleshoot the issue.
**for example, the Cisco ACI VMM