Leave the switch portion in access mode with a single nic until esx is installed and configured. Inside the vSwitch leave everything as the default except NIC teaming Load balancing > Route based on IP hash Network failover detection > Link status only Notify switches > yes Failback > yes Save Enable the port channel on the switch with the nics that are connected to the server. Save Back in ESX change the VLAN to 150 or whatever VLAN the assigned IP is on. Create a new VM network named like VLAN-150 In NIC teaming choose Inherit from vSwitch for all sections and NO for Override failover order. Save If you have a VRTX don't forget to add the nics on each blade to the active set in the team and set them to route based hash on each.