Difference between Standard Switches and Distributed Switches

Features

Standard Switch

Distributed Switch

Management

Standard switch needs to managed at each individual
host level

Provides centralized management and
monitoring of the network configuration
of all the ESXi hosts that are
associated with the dvswitch.

Licensing

Standard Switch is available for all
Licensing Edition

Distributed switch is only available for
enterprise edition of licensing

Creation & configuration

Standard switch can be created and
configured at ESX/ESXi host level

Distributed switch can be created and configured
at the vCenter server level

Layer 2 Switch

Yes, can forward Layer 2 frames

Yes, can forward Layer 2 frames

VLAN segmentation

Yes

Yes

1. 802.1Q tagging

Can use and understand 802.1q
VLAN tagging

Can use and understand 802.1q
VLAN tagging

NIC teaming

Yes, can utilize multiple uplink to
form NIC teaming

Yes, can utilize multiple uplink to form
NIC teaming

Outbound Traffic Shaping

Can be achieved using standard switch

Can be achieved using distributed switch

Inbound Traffic Shaping

Not available as part of standard
switches

Only possible at distributed switch

VM port blocking

Not available as part of standard
switches

Only possible at distributed switch

Private VLAN

Not available

PVLAN can be created as part of dvswitch. 3 types of PVLAN(Promiscuous,
Community and Isolated)

Load based Teaming

Not available

Can be achieved using distributed switch

Network vMotion

Not available

Can be achieved using distributed switch

Per Port policy setting

Policy can be applied at switch
and port group

Policy can be applied at switch, port group and even per port level

NetFlow

Not available

Yes

Port Mirroring

Not available

Yes