How to Configure Vlan trunking between Cisco switch and ESX host

This blog post explains step by step instructions on how to setup vlan trunking between a cisco switch and an esx host. so lets begin:

Device list: 

Cisco catalyst 3560 switch 

Vmware esxi 5.5.0

-Simple network Diagram below:

- First we need perform the configurations on the cisco switch. below are the commands used:

interface FastEthernet0/7

 description link to trunk to esx vswitch 

 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q

 switchport trunk allowed vlan 10

 switchport mode trunk

 switchport nonegotiate

 no cdp enable

 spanning-tree portfast trunk

- Second is the setup of the ESX part. first we need to create a vswitch. to create a vswitch we go to the following tab under the ESX management console and click on Add networking and choose Virtual machine. 

- Then the next menu will allow you to create a vswitch. Create a new vswitch and choose NIC that will be used by this switch. in this example will be vmnic1. then click next.

- On the section above a Vswitch name Malware-lab was created. on the second option VLAN ID, the vlan number to be setup needs to declared there. in this case is vlan 10.  Once this settings are saved  just perform a ping between the endpoints and it should be able to communicate.