An administrator is trying to remove a host from a vSphere Distributed Switch named DSwitch01. The following error message is displayed: vDS DSwitch01 port 17 is still on host 192.168.100.23 connected

Migrating to a different port on the same vDS (DSwitch01 port 1) does not remove the VM from the vDS; the host still retains an active vDS port binding and the error condition remains.

Adding a second vNIC on a different vDS does not remove the existing vNIC connection on DSwitch01 port 17; two active connections would exist and the blocking port is unchanged.

Migrating VM01 to another host moves the VM off the host being removed, which releases the vDS port binding on the source host and satisfies the requirement that no VM vNICs remain connected to the vDS on that host.

Disconnecting VM01's vNIC directly releases the vDS port (port 17) on host 192.168.100.23, eliminating the dependency that prevents host removal from DSwitch01.

Maintenance Mode applies to ESXi hosts, not VMs; placing a VM into maintenance mode is not a valid operation and does not affect the VM's vNIC port binding on the vDS.