vDS

I/O Plane hidden switch

vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS)is typically created from vSphere client, although the customized PowerCLI with the help from vSphere SDK could also do the job. (http://blogs.vmware.com/vipowershell/2010/07/vds-in-powercli-41.html)

esxcfg-vwitch could only work with DVPort as such:

•  -P|--add-dvp-uplink=uplink  Add an uplink to a DVPort on a DVSwitch.
• -Q|--del-dvp-uplink=uplink  Delete an uplink from a  DVPort on a DVSwitch.
• -V|--dvp=dvport             Specify a DVPort Id for the operation. 

To create the vswif and uplink it to the DVS port:
esxcfg-vswif -a -i IP_address -n Netmask -V dvSwitch -P DVPort_ID vswif0    
For example:
esxcfg-vswif -a -i 192.168.76.1 -n 255.255.255.0 -V dvSwitch -P 8 vswif0