6.5.1

Table Of Contents
Figure 31. vSphere Distributed Switch Architecture
Uplink port group Uplink port group
Uplink2 Uplink3Uplink1
Host 1
Host 2
Uplink port group
vSphere Distributed Switch
vCenter Server
Distributed
port groups
Production network
VMkernel network
vmnic0 vmnic1 vmnic2 vmnic0 vmnic1 vmnic2
Host Proxy Switch
Production
network
VMkernel
network
Production
network
VMkernel
network
Management plane
Data plane
Virtual network
Physical network
Physical NICs
Host Proxy Switch
Physical Switch
A network switch in vSphere consists of two logical sections that are the data plane and the management
plane. The data plane implements the package switching, filtering, tagging, and so on. The management
plane is the control structure that you use to configure the data plane functionality. A vSphere Standard
Switch contains both data and management planes, and you configure and maintain each standard
switch individually.
A vSphere Distributed Switch separates the data plane and the management plane. The management
functionality of the distributed switch resides on the vCenter Server system that lets you administer the
networking configuration of your environment on a data center level. The data plane remains locally on
every host that is associated with the distributed switch. The data plane section of the distributed switch is
called a host proxy switch. The networking configuration that you create on vCenter Server (the
management plane) is automatically pushed down to all host proxy switches (the data plane).
vSphere Networking
VMware, Inc. 27