6.7

Table Of Contents
Network Adapter Basics
When you configure a virtual machine, you can add network adapters (NICs) and specify the adapter
type.
Network Adapter Types
The type of network adapters that are available depend on the following factors:
n
The virtual machine compatibility, which depends on the host that created or most recently updated it.
n
Whether the virtual machine compatibility has been updated to the latest version for the current host.
n
The guest operating system.
Supported NICs currently differ between an on-premises environment and VMware Cloud on AWS. The
following NIC types are supported in an on-premises deployment:
E1000E Emulated version of the Intel 82574 Gigabit Ethernet NIC. E1000E is the
default adapter for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.
E1000 Emulated version of the Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet NIC, with drivers
available in most newer guest operating systems, including Windows XP
and later and Linux versions 2.4.19 and later.
Flexible Identifies itself as a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but
initializes itself and functions as either a Vlance or a VMXNET adapter,
depending on which driver initializes it. With VMware Tools installed, the
VMXNET driver changes the Vlance adapter to the higher performance
VMXNET adapter.
Vlance Emulated version of the AMD 79C970 PCnet32 LANCE NIC, an older 10
Mbps NIC with drivers available in 32-bit legacy guest operating systems. A
virtual machine configured with this network adapter can use its network
immediately.
VMXNET Optimized for performance in a virtual machine and has no physical
counterpart. Because operating system vendors do not provide built-in
drivers for this card, you must install VMware Tools to have a driver for the
VMXNET network adapter available.
VMXNET 2 (Enhanced) Based on the VMXNET adapter but provides high-performance features
commonly used on modern networks, such as jumbo frames and hardware
offloads. VMXNET 2 (Enhanced) is available only for some guest operating
systems on ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
VMware, Inc. 120