6.0

Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 115
Chapter 9 Managing vSphere Networking
Networking Using vSphere Distributed Switches
Whenyouwanttoconnectavirtualmachinetotheoutsideworld,youcanuseastandardswitchora
distributedswitch.Withadistributedswitch,thevirtualmachinecanmaintainitsnetworksettingsevenifthe
virtualmachineismigratedtoadifferenthost.
Figure 9-2. Networking with vSphere Distributed Switches
Eachphysicalnetworkadapter(1)onthehostispairedwithadistributeduplinkport(2),which
representstheuplinktothevirtualmachine.Withdistributedswitches,thevirtualmachinenolonger
dependsonthehost’sphysicaluplinkbutonthe(virtual)uplinkport.Youmanageauplinkports
primarilyusing
thevSphereWebClient,orvSphereAPIs.
Thedistributedswitchitself(3)functionsasasinglevirtualswitchacrossallassociatedhosts.Becausethe
switchisnotassociatedwithasinglehost,virtualmachinescanmaintainconsistentnetwork
configurationastheymigratefromonehosttoanother.
Likeastandardswitch,eachdistributedswitchisanetworkhub
thatvirtualmachinescanuse.A
distributedswitchcanroutetrafficinternallybetweenvirtualmachinesorlinktoanexternalnetworkby
connectingtophysicalnetworkadapters.YoucreateadistributedswitchusingthethevSphereWeb
ClientUI,butcanmanagesomeaspectsofadistributedswitchwithvicfg-vswitch.
Youcanlist
distributedvirtualswitcheswiththeesxcli network vswitchcommand.See“SettingUpVirtual
SwitchesandAssociatingaSwitchwithaNetworkInterface”onpage 117.
Retrieving Basic Networking Information
ServiceconsolecommandsforretrievingnetworkinginformationarenotincludedintheESXiShell.Youcan
insteaduseESXCLIcommandsdirectlyintheshellorusevCLIcommands.
OnESXi5.0,ifconfiginformationshouldbetheinformationoftheVMkernelNICthatattachestothe
ManagementNetworkportgroup.Youcan
retrieveinformationbyusingESXCLIcommands.
esxcli <conn_options> network ip interface list
esxcli <conn_options> network ip interface ipv4 get -n vmk<X>
esxcli <conn_options> network ip interface ipv6 get -n vmk<X>
esxcli <conn_options> network ip interface ipv6 address list
ForinformationcorrespondingtotheLinuxnetstatcommand,usethefollowingESXCLIcommand.
esxcli <conn_options> network ip connection list
physical network adapters
Host1
Host1
Host2
Host2
Network
C
VM VM VM VM
VM
vSphere Distributed Switch
uplink uplink
ABCDEFGH I J
virtual
distributed port group
physical
physical network
1
2
4
3