Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5.1
Successful virtual
networking is a
blend of virtual
and physical net-
work adapters and
switches.
ESXi host
vSwitch0
vSwitch1
Physical
switch
Physical
switch
iSCSI SAN or NFS
storage server
Because the virtual network implementation makes VMs accessible, it is essential that the
virtual network be coni gured in a manner that supports reliable and efi cient communication
around the different network infrastructure components.
Working with vSphere Standard Switches
The networking architecture of ESXi revolves around creating and coni guring virtual switches.
These virtual switches are either vSphere Standard Switches or vSphere Distributed Switches.
First we'll discuss vSphere Standard Switches, hereafter called vSwitches; we'll discuss vSphere
Distributed Switches next.
You create and manage vSwitches through the vSphere Web Client or through the vSphere
CLI using the esxcli command, but they operate within the VMkernel. Virtual switches pro-
vide the connectivity to provide communication as follows:
Between VMs within an ESXi host
◆
◆
Between VMs on different ESXi hosts
