HP vPars and Integrity Virtual Machines V6.1 Administrator Guide

10 Creating virtual networks
You can allocate virtual network devices or virtual network interface cards (vNICs) to the vPar or
VM when you create the them with the hpvmcreate command or when you modify an existing
vPar/VM using the hpvmmodify command, as described in Chapter 7 and “Creating virtual
partitions” (page 59). Virtual network interface cards are added using the same option that is used
to add storage devices, but the format of the argument to the command option is different. To add
a vNIC to a guest, use the following command option:
-a network:adaptertype:bus,device,mac-addr:vswitch:vswitch-name:portid:portnumber
However, before you can allocate the vswitch to the vPar/VM, you must create the virtual switch
(vswitch) using the hpvmnet (or vparnet command) command. This chapter describes how to
create and manage vswitches, including the following topics and tasks:
• Introduction to virtual network configuration
• Creating and managing vswitches
• Managing vNICs
• Configuring VLANs
• Using DIO functionality
• Troubleshooting network problems
10.1 Introduction to virtual network configuration
The guest virtual network configuration provides flexibility in network configuration, allowing you
to provide high availability, performance, and security to the vPars/VMs running on the VSP. The
basic virtual network configuration is illustrated in Figure 10.
Figure 10 Virtual Network Configuration
VSP
Localnet Vswitch1 Vswitch2
Intranet
Guest 1
VNIC 1 VNIC 2
Guest 2
VNIC 1 VNIC 2
Guest 3
VNIC 1 VNIC 2
PNIC 1PNIC 2
The virtual network configuration consists of the following components:
10.1 Introduction to virtual network configuration 143