d/vsphere_network: Gather community feedback on optionally supporting a strict 1-to-1 VLAN ↔ Portgroup mapping model

[akli-ime]

Code of Conduct

• I have read and agree to the project's Code of Conduct.
• Vote on this issue by adding a 👍 reaction to the original issue initial description to help the maintainers prioritize.
• Do not leave "+1" or other comments that do not add relevant information or questions.
• If you are interested in working on this issue or have submitted a pull request, please leave a comment.

Description

This issue is opened to gather community feedback on whether the Terraform vSphere provider should optionally support a workflow based on a strict 1-to-1 mapping between VLANs and distributed portgroups.

A recent pull request (#2675) introduces changes that allow resolving distributed portgroups directly from a VLAN ID. While this approach works in some environments, it represents a specific architectural assumption that may not match all vSphere networking setups.

This issue is intended purely for discussion and community input. The goal is to understand whether optionally supporting this workflow would be useful and widely adopted, rather than to decide on implementation or maintenance at this stage.

Use Case(s)

1. Environments where each VLAN could optionally map to a single, dedicated distributed portgroup
2. Infrastructure-as-Code workflows that may benefit from deterministic network resolution
3. Security-sensitive or regulated environments that require strict network isolation
4. Enterprise network designs where VLAN IDs optionally define portgroup identity

Potential Configuration

Example configurations illustrating optional workflows for a strict 1-to-1 VLAN ↔ portgroup mapping.

** Option 1 — Lookup by VLAN ID (optional workflow)

data "vsphere_datacenter" "datacenter" {
  name = var.datacenter
}

data "vsphere_distributed_port_group" "pg" {
  vlan_id       = var.vlan_id
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.datacenter.id
}

This model assumes:

1 VLAN ↔ 1 Portgroup (per datacenter)

It allows consumers to reference portgroups solely by VLAN ID, without explicitly specifying a portgroup name.

** Option 2 — Lookup by Portgroup Name (existing workflow)

data "vsphere_datacenter" "datacenter" {
  name = var.datacenter
}

data "vsphere_distributed_port_group" "pg" {
  name           = var.portgroup_name
  datacenter_id = data.vsphere_datacenter.datacenter.id
}

This remains the default and most flexible approach, avoiding assumptions and supporting heterogeneous environments.

** Summary

This issue is solely to gather input from the community on whether optionally supporting a strict 1-to-1 VLAN ↔ portgroup mapping would be valuable. Feedback on adoption, use cases, and preferences is welcome.

References

1. Related PR: Add VLAN ID support to vsphere_network data source #2675
2. VMware vSphere documentation

[tenthirtyam]

This would be more appropriate for a Discussion.