Before you learn how to configure VLANs on a Standard or Distributed Switch it is important to know that there are four supported types:

• External Switch Tagging (EST): Requires no VLAN ID to be configured on the port group (Standard or Distributed).
• Virtual Switch Tagging (VST): Requires setting a VLAN ID on the port group (Standard or Distributed) or dvPort.
• Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT): Requires setting a VLAN ID of 4095 on a vSphere Standard Switch. A dvSwitch allows you to specify a VLAN ID or a range of VLAN IDs to be trunked by the dvSwitch.
• Private VLANs: Requires configuration of Private VLANs on the dvSwitch. Read the Configuring private VLANs on a dvSwitch recipe.