Configures settings like teaming, VLAN, port binding and security for VMkernel adapters and VMs that connect to it, applied identically on all hosts joined to the vSphere Distributed Switch it lives on.
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In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Distributed port group in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- LIKE
Compares strings with a pattern that can contain the % and _ wildcards. Because it only understands character patterns, searching big volumes of text this way is much slower than using full-text search.
- VLAN
Layer 2 broadcast domain tagged using 802.1Q. In VCF they carry TEP, vSAN, vMotion and management traffic, and NSX can back segments with them.
- Port binding
A distributed port group setting controlling when ports are allocated. With static binding a port is assigned as a VM connects; with ephemeral (no binding) ports are created as needed, so VMs can connect via a host managed directly even when vCenter is down.
- VMkernel
At the heart of ESX sits this kernel. Network access for host services (iSCSI, NFS, vSAN, vMotion, management and so on) goes through VMkernel adapters, also called vmknics.
- Virtual machines
Infrastructure-as-a-service compute giving complete control of the operating system, making it a fit for lift-and-shift moves and for software relying on OS-level pieces like COM.
- CONNECT
In SQL Server, the right to open a connection to a database. Fabric's equivalent is Read permission on an item, which allows connecting to a warehouse or SQL endpoint but not querying anything in it.
- ALL
A DAX function that ignores any filters and gives back every row of a table or every value of the named columns. Used within CALCULATE, it works as a modifier that clears filters, although REMOVEFILTERS states that intent more clearly where it is available.
- VDS
Virtual switch defined once in vCenter and pushed out to each member host. NSX runs on top of it on VCF host transport nodes.
Related terms
- MAC learning
Off unless switched on, this distributed port group policy lets one vNIC present many source MAC addresses (nested ESX is a typical case), with up to 4096 learnt per port by default and unknown unicast frames flooded. VMware documents it as a better option than promiscuous mode.
- port blocking
A policy applied to a distributed port group or to individual ports that cuts off chosen ports, or the whole group, so no traffic passes in or out.
- Primary Workload Network
Used by the Supervisor's control plane VMs for their traffic. Where networking is built on a vSphere Distributed Switch, this takes the form of a distributed port group; namespaces may share it or be given a separate port group instead.
- Workload Network
Gives Supervisor workloads connectivity over a distributed port group when VDS networking is used. Control plane VMs sit on the primary one, and each namespace may use that or another.