HP vPars and Integrity Virtual Machines V6.1 Administrator Guide

10.4.1 Port-Based VLANs
Figure 11 illustrates a basic virtual machine VLAN that allows guests on different VSP systems to
communicate.
Figure 11 Integrity VM VLAN Configuration Example
VSP VSP
VSwitch2
VSwitch1
Guest
VM1
Guest
VM2
Internet
PNIC 2
VLAN1
VSwitch2
VSwitch1
Guest
VM3
Guest
VM4
VLAN1
PNIC 2
PNIC 1 PNIC 1
A vNIC on a guest is associated with a port on the vswitch and all network communication to and
from the guest passes through this vswitch port. You can configure VLAN rules on the individual
ports of the vswitch, similar to most physical switches. Each VLAN is identified by a VLAN identifier
(VLAN ID). The VLAN ID is a number in the range 0-4094. A port on the vswitch can be assigned
a VLAN ID that identifies the VLAN to which the port (and, therefore, the guest vNIC using that
port) belongs.
Ports on a vswitch that are configured for the same VLAN ID can communicate with each other.
Ports on a vswitch that are configured for different VLAN IDs are isolated from each other. Ports
on a vswitch that do not have any VLAN ID assigned cannot communicate with ports that have a
VLAN ID assigned, but they can communicate with other ports that have no VLAN ID assigned.
VLAN port IDs for a vswitch can range from 0–511.
The emulation of the virtual network I/O card is based on the Intel I8254X family. Thus, the virtual
network card (vNIC) is presented to the guest operating system as PCI-X 1000Base-T with the speed
of 1 Gb regardless of the physical network interface card backing the vswitch. This emulation
could lead to an incorrect calculation of vNIC performance by some network performance
applications on the guest.
To accurately calculate vNIC performance, take into consideration the speed of the backing device
on the Integrity VSP.
If the guest has to communicate with the VSP or outside the VSP over a VLAN, additional
configuration is necessary. For communication to the VSP, configure a VLAN interface on the VSP
interface for that vswitch. This VLAN interface should have the same VLAN ID as the guest port.
For information about configuring VLANs on the VSP, see the Using HP-UX VLANs manual. Do not
use the hpvmnet command to create a virtual switch that is associated with a VLAN port on the
VSP (that is, a LAN created with lanadmin -V). This “nested VLAN” configuration is not supported.
10.4 Configuring VLANs 153