Users Guide

Virtual Network Architecture for Hyper-V 11
Virtual Network Adapters
VMs can be presented with two types of virtual network adapters:
Legacy (or emulated) and Synthetic.
• Legacy devices emulate a physical network adapter in software.
Although this process provides networking services to a VM, it requires
additional host processing resources.
•
Synthetic devices are comparable to proxy devices that present themselves
as network devices, but only pass bundles of data along the VMBus to
other networking resources. This process does not require software
emulation, and therefore offers higher networking performance for VMs.
It also lowers host system overhead.
Virtual Switches
A virtual switch forms the heart of connectivity in a Hyper-V virtual network.
The virtual switch functions like a physical network switch by connecting
physical and virtual network adapters. Like a physical network switch,
a virtual switch has internal and external switch ports (network ports).
The configuration of these ports is based on the type of virtual
network created.
The following sections introduce virtual network types, discuss how they
differ, and provide best practices for implementing each switch.