6.5.1

Table Of Contents
IP storage traffic and
discovery
Handles the connection for storage types that use standard TCP/IP
networks and depend on the VMkernel networking. Such storage types are
software iSCSI, dependent hardware iSCSI, and NFS. If you have two or
more physical NICs for iSCSI, you can configure iSCSI multipathing. ESXi
hosts support NFS 3 and 4.1. To configure a software Fibre Channel over
Ethernet (FCoE) adapter, you must have a dedicated VMkernel adapter.
Software FCoE passes configuration information though the Data Center
Bridging Exchange (DCBX) protocol by using the Cisco Discovery Protocol
(CDP )VMkernel module.
Fault Tolerance traffic Handles the data that the primary fault tolerant virtual machine sends to the
secondary fault tolerant virtual machine over the VMkernel networking
layer. A separate VMkernel adapter for Fault Tolerance logging is required
on every host that is part of a vSphere HA cluster.
vSphere Replication
traffic
Handles the outgoing replication data that the source ESXi host transfers to
the vSphere Replication server. Dedicate a VMkernel adapter on the source
site to isolate the outgoing replication traffic.
vSphere Replication
NFC traffic
Handles the incoming replication data on the target replication site.
vSAN traffic Every host that participates in a vSAN cluster must have a VMkernel
adapter to handle the vSAN traffic.
View Information About VMkernel Adapters on a Host
You can view each VMkernel adapter's assigned services, associated switch, port settings, IP settings,
TCP/IP stack, VLAN ID, and policies.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to the host.
2 Click the Configure tab and expand the Networking menu.
3 To view information about all VMkernel adapters on the host, select VMkernel adapters.
4 Select an adapter from the VMkernel adapters list to view its settings.
Tab Description
All Displays all configuration information about the VMkernel adapter. This information includes port and NIC
settings, IPv4 and IPv6 settings, traffic shaping, teaming and failover, and security policies.
Properties Displays the port properties and NIC settings of the VMkernel adapter. The port properties include the port group
(network label) to which the adapter is associated, the VLAN ID, and the enabled services. The NIC settings
include MAC address and the configured MTU size.
vSphere Networking
VMware, Inc. 63