Where does the control plane of a distributed switch reside?

The control plane of a distributed switch resides in the vCenter server, which is critical for managing multiple ESXi hosts that are part of the distributed switch configuration. In a vSphere environment, the distributed switch acts as a single logical switch covering all the ESXi hosts that are connected to it. This centralized control allows for simplified network management, consistent network configurations, and enhanced network features such as port mirroring and traffic shaping across all hosts.

Since the control plane is centralized within the vCenter server, it can effectively communicate and manage the data plane operations occurring on individual ESXi hosts. The CPU and memory resources associated with network switching tasks are thus not burdened by having multiple control planes on each host. Instead, this centralized architecture allows for efficient orchestration of network resources across the cluster, facilitating tasks like provisioning and monitoring without requiring individual ESXi hosts to perform these functions independently.

This structure also enhances scalability and ease of management, particularly in environments that involve numerous virtual machines and hosts, which could be cumbersome to manage if the control logic were distributed across the individual hosts.