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Table Of Contents
CHAPTER 11 Networking Virtual Machines
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Components of the Virtual Network
Virtual switch — Like a physical switch, a virtual switch lets you connect other
networking components together. Virtual switches are created as needed by the
VMware ACE software, up to a total of nine switches. You can connect one or more
virtual machines to a switch.
A few of the switches and the networks associated with them are, by default, used for
special named configurations. The bridged network normally uses VMnet0. The NAT
network uses VMnet8 by default. The other available networks are simply named
VMnet2, VMnet3, VMnet4, and so on.
You connect a virtual machine to a switch by selecting the virtual network adapter
you want to connect in the virtual machine settings editor, then configuring it to use
the desired virtual network.
Bridge — The bridge lets you connect your virtual machine to the LAN used by your
host computer. It connects the virtual network adapter in your virtual machine to the
physical Ethernet adapter in your host computer.
The bridge is installed during VMware ACE installation. It is set up automatically when
you create a new virtual machine using bridged networking.
Host virtual adapter — The host virtual adapter is a virtual Ethernet adapter that
appears to your host operating system as a VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter. It allows
you to communicate between your host computer and the virtual machines on that
host computer. The host virtual adapter is used in NAT configurations.
The host virtual adapter is not connected to any external network.
The software that creates the host virtual adapter is installed when you install VMware
ACE. A host virtual adapter is then created automatically when you boot the host
computer.
You can set up additional host virtual adapters as needed.
NAT device — The NAT (network address translation) device allows you to connect
your virtual machines to an external network when you have only one IP network
address on the physical network and that address is used by the host computer. You
can, for example, use NAT to connect your virtual machines to the Internet through a
dial-up connection on the host computer or through the host computers Ethernet
adapter or wireless Ethernet adapter. NAT is also useful when you need to connect to
a non-Ethernet network, such as Token Ring or ATM.
The NAT device is set up automatically when you install VMware ACE.