Hey All,
I was wondering if someone could answer a few questions for me about distributed switches. I've worked with vmware for a few years now, but believe it or not I've never configured a distributed switch. The environment I work in always used standard switches, and when you deal with folks that have the mentality of "if it ain't broke....", it's easy to become complacent. Everything in my environment is 5.1 by the way.
I'm reading various articles on capabilities now, but I don't have a testing environment to break, so I have to be careful of any changes I make. I figured it was best to ask those familiar with it before deciding on any future changes.
-Do I lose all host based network management (what I'm used to with std switches) as soon as I create a distributed switch?
-Is distributed switching vCenter wide, or can I create multiple distributed switches by cluster, or only with certain subnets included?
-What happens when I add a new host to a cluster with a distributed switch? Does it automatically get configured with the networking capabilities of the distributed switch?
-Are there any gotchas or cons that I should be aware of, either during creation of a distributed switch or in the everyday management of it/them?
-What is the best thing I gain? Worst thing I lose?
Thanks for your input. 