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Table Of Contents
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Associated with the standard switch are port groups (3). Port group is a unique concept in the virtual
environment. You can congure port groups to enforce policies that provide enhanced networking
security, network segmentation, beer performance, high availability, and trac management. You can
use the esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup or vicfg-vswitch command to associate a
standard switch with a port group, and the esxcli network ip interface or vicfg-vmknic command to
associate a port group with a VMkernel network interface.
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The VMkernel TCP/IP networking stack supports iSCSI, NFS, and vMotion and has an associated
VMkernel network interface. You congure VMkernel network interfaces by using esxcli network ip
interface or vicfg-vmknic. See Adding and Modifying VMkernel Network Interfaces,” on page 145.
Separate VMkernel network interfaces are often used for separate tasks, for example, you might devote
one VMkernel network interface card to vMotion only. Virtual machines run their own systems' TCP/IP
stacks and connect to the VMkernel at the Ethernet level through virtual switches.
Networking Using vSphere Distributed Switches
When you want to connect a virtual machine to the outside world, you can use a standard switch or a
distributed switch. With a distributed switch, the virtual machine can maintain its network seings even if
the virtual machine is migrated to a dierent host.
Figure 92. Networking with vSphere Distributed Switches
uplink uplink
Physical Network
vSphere Distributed Switch
B C D E F G H I J
virtual
physical
physical network adapters
distributed port
group
Network
C
Host1
Host1
Host2
Host2
A
1
2
4
3
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Each physical network adapter (1) on the host is paired with a distributed uplink port (2), which
represents the uplink to the virtual machine. With distributed switches, the virtual machine no longer
depends on the host’s physical uplink but on the (virtual) uplink port. You manage a uplink ports
primarily using the vSphere Web Client, or vSphere APIs.
Chapter 9 Managing vSphere Networking
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