Migrate from Cisco Nexus 1000v to vCenter DVS

Basically, create your destination dVS in advance. Assuming you have multiple physical uplinks
per host, you'll want to remove at least one from each host and assign to the new dVS. After that
you can start moving guests to the correct port-groups on the new dVS. Once there are no longer
any guestVMs utilizing the N1k port-groups, then you can remove the remaining physical
uplinks and add them to the dVS.

Using the native VMware 'migrate Virtual machine networking' applet, you can move all
guestvms per port-group at a time. You should only have a brief traffic interruption while arp
processes reestablish connectivity of the guestVM NIC on new dvs port and associated uplink.
If, for some reason you have only one uplink per host,,, then this probably require some down
time.
Migration from Cisco 1000v to VMware Virtual Distributed
Switch (Part 1)

While working with a enterprise customer I was tasked with migrating an entire production
environment from the Cisco Nexus 1000v to a VMware Virtual Distributed Switch (VDS).
Then moving the VDS and the ESXi 5.1 hosts over to a fresh built vSphere 6.0 server. The
customer is in the middle of an upgrade from vCenter 5.1 to 6.0. Most of the host upgrades
will be done once the hosts are moved over to to the new vCenter.

Goals:
 Non-disruptive migration of networking for Virtual Machines (this is a live
production environment)
 Migrate away from the Cisco 1000v, to VDS
 Migrate the VDS config from old 5.1 vCenter to new 6.0 vCenter
 Touch-up naming of virtual machine networks/VLANs
 Move Virtual Machines from the Virtual Distributed Switch (VDS)/Nexus 1000v to
a Virtual Standard Switch (VSS)
 Disconnect and remove the ESXi hosts from the old vCenter 5.1
 Connect ESXi hosts to the new vCenter 6.0
 Migrate VM networking from VSS to VDS

VMware vSphere 5.1 and later allow you to export, import, or restore Distributed Switch
configurations from the vSphere Web Client. Since moving the 1000v would be too
convoluted, if not actually impossible, I will move everything over to a VDS on the existing
5.1 vCenter first. Then once everything is up and running on the VDS we can then migrate
the VDS configuration over to the new 6.0 vCenter server.
Unfortunately we will also need to create a Virtual Standard Switch (VSS) switch configured
with all the networks, all with matching configuration on each ESXi host in order to actually
do the ESXi host migrations over to the new 6.0 vCenter. This will be automated with
scripts, of course.

We must migrate all virtual machine, VMkernel, and service console networking from VDS to
VSS so that network connectivity is not lost when we remove the hosts from the VDS in
order to disconnect them from the 5.1 vCenter and add them to the 6.0 vCenter.

MIGRATION FROM 1000v to VDS

Summary:

The following steps will migrate the host and VM networking from the Cisco Nexus 1000v to
a VMware Virtual Distributed Switch. This migration plan assumes that there are at least
two dedicated uplinks for VM traffic. The purpose of this is to remove dependencies on
the legacy 1000v and create a known working configuration of the VDS that will later
migrated to the new vCenter 6.0 server. The customer has decided against using the 1000v
and wants it removed from their environments. We need to perform this migration before
we can move the hosts to the v6.0 vCenter so that we have a working VDS configuration
that we can later export to the new vCenter and as a result have an immediately working

VDS configuration.

I performed the migration in two parts; that I named “legs” which is basically a reference to
the actual uplinks (A + B) themselves. This is to ensure I can quickly and easily roll-back
the change if necessary. For the duration of the migration we will only be on one “leg” at a
time (either the 1000v on uplink A – or – the VDS on uplink B), this of course introduces a
single point of failure but the risk is acceptable since the change window is quite small and
the chances of a switch or uplink failure during our change is low. Regardless, I will ensure
that both the 1000v and VDS are fully working at all times until all VM networking is
migrated from the 1000v to the VDS – testing along the way to ensure there is no impact to
VM networking. Once all VMs are moved from the 1000v then we can remove the uplink to
the 1000V which at that point should be completely unused and add that uplink to the VDS
so that we can then achieve our A+B uplink redundancy again.

Pre Tasks:
 *** Disable HA, DRS, and EVC on the Cluster ***
 *** Storage DRS needs to be set to manual or disabled ***
LEG 1

The following will put the hosts into a split 1000v + VDS configuration. One leg on the
1000v, one leg on the VDS. This is necessary to allow proper configuration verification and
full migration of VM networking. During this time however, VMs will only have 1 uplink on
either side which introduces a single point of failure. However this will only be for the
duration of the migration and then they will move back to 2+ uplink paths.
1 – Place target host into maintenance mode
2 – Remove ONE host uplink to the 1000v
3 – Attach host to new VDS using the now available vmnic that used to be on the 1000v
4 – Remove host from maintenance mode
5 – Use Testing VM to verify networking is working (at your discretion)
6 – Repeat process for all hosts individually

LEG 2

The following will migrate the 2nd leg into the uplink group of the first to allow proper link
redundancy on the VDS. Currently VM networking should be working on both the 1000v and
VDS. The following steps will fully disconnect the 1000v and migrate VM networking to the
VDS. This will allow the removal of the 1000v while the VMs continue running without
interruption.
1 – Using the ‘Migrate Virtual Machine Networking’ tool migrate ALL VM networks as
required from the 1000v to the VDS networks
2 – Repeat the Migrate Virtual Machine Network for each VM Port Group until all VMs are
migrated
3 – ** At this point all VMs should be running from a VDS **
4 – Place target host into maintenance mode
5 – Remove host from the 1000v
6 – Add the vmnic that was on the 1000v to the VDS uplinks
7 – Packet Control (etc) vmnics should show as DOWN on the host
8 – Remove host from maintenance mode
9 – Repeat process for all remaining hosts

Post Tasks:
– Re-enable HA, DRS, EVC, and Storage DRS as appropriate
– Export working VDS configuration to the new v6.0 vCenter server

We’re done!
This migration was completed successfully for the customer in all development, staging, and
production VMware environments. During the migration we even took the time to clean-up
and standardize the network names of the VM port groups consistently across the
environments. I hope this guide can be helpful if you find yourself in a similar situation.

Click here for Part 2, where we will migration the VDS to VSS networking so that we can
move the hosts to the new vCenter server, the move back to the VDS on the new vCenter
6.0!
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions please let me know in the comments
section below!

References / Sources:
 http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2034602
 http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1029498
Migration from Cisco 1000v to VMware Virtual Distributed
Switch (Part 2)
This is part 2 of a series. Click here to see Part 1. I apologise for taking so long to get
Part 2 posted. Sometimes I just don’t have the time or effort I would like to have with the
blog.

This portion of the guide focuses on the second half of the VSS to VDS migrations. We
needed to move the VMs to a VSS so that you can migrate both VMs and hosts to the new
vCenter cleanly. Then we will be moving the VMs back to a VDS from their VSS
configuration.

Keep in mind this migration is being done LIVE with production virtual machines
running on the hosts. Obviously, this must be executed carefully or you will have a lot of
explaining to do. Do not make these changes without understanding the full impact to your
environment.

**** PHASE 2 ****

ESXi Host Migration to New vCenter

The following will migrate the hosts from the existing vCenter to the new vCenter server
while the VMs continue running. Once all the hosts have been migrated to the new vCenter
the VM networking will be moved back the the VDS (Virtual Distributed Switch). We will
follow basically the same steps we followed in phase 1, to move back to the VDS from the
VSS. Any VMs running on a PvLAN will NOT have network connectivity for the duration of
the move until they are re-attached to the VDS (in LEG 2).

LEG 1
1. Individually disconnect each ESXi host from the old vCenter
2. Add each ESXi host to the new vCenter until all hosts are moved
3. Place target host into maintenance mode
4. Remove ONE of the hosts uplinks to vSwitch2
5. Attach what was the vSwitch2 uplink vmnic to the VDS uplink NIC
6. Remove the host from maintenance mode
7. Verify network configuration using testing VM
8. Repeat process for all hosts individually
LEG 2
1. Using the ‘Migrate Virtual Machine Networking’ tool migrate ALL VM networks as
required from the VSS to the VDS networks
2. Repeat the Migrate Virtual Machine Network for each VM Port Group until all VMs are
migrated
3. At this point all VMs should be running from a VDS
4. Place target host into maintenance mode
5. Remove host from the VDS
6. Add the vmnic that was on the VSS vSwitch2 to the VDS
7. Remove host from maintenance mode
8. Repeat process for all remaining hosts

All VMs should now be running on the VDS. The VDS should have redundant uplinks A + B
from all ESXi hosts in the cluster. The migration to the new vCenter is now completed.

Post-Tasks:
 Cleanup (remove) VSS vSwitch2 configuration on ESXi hosts
 Re-enable Cluster HA, DRS, EVC, and Storage DRS
 Move VMs to correct VM Folders, Set Permissions, etc

References / Sources:
 http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2034602
 http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1029498
https://community.cisco.com/t5/server-networking/vsphere-migrate-from-nexus-1000v-to-
vcenter-dvs-process-or-tool/td-p/3096773

https://www.vskilled.com/2016/01/migration-from-cisco-1000v-to-vmware-virtual-
distributed-switch-part-1/

https://www.vskilled.com/2016/12/migration-from-cisco-1000v-to-vmware-virtual-
distributed-switch-part-2/

http://www.virtualizationteam.com/network/migrating-nexus-1000v-to-vds-in-vra-
environment.html

https://fojta.wordpress.com/tag/nexus-1000v/

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1020893