6.7

Table Of Contents
Figure 33. Packet Flow on the Host Proxy Switch
VMkernel
network
Uplink port group
VM network
Host 1
0 1 3
vmnic0 vmnic1
5 6 7
Host Proxy
Switch
vmnic2
VM2 vmknic1VM1
Physical Switch
On the host side, the packet flow from virtual machines and VMkernel services passes through particular
ports to reach the physical network. For example, a packet sent from VM1 on Host 1 first reaches port 0
on the VM network distributed port group. Because Uplink 1 and Uplink 2 handle the traffic for the VM
network port group, the packet can continue from uplink port 5 or uplink port 6 . If the packet goes through
uplink port 5, it continues to vmnic0, and if the packet goes to uplink port 6, it continues to vmnic1.
Create a vSphere Distributed Switch
Create a vSphere distributed switch on a data center to handle the networking configuration of multiple
hosts at a time from a central place.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to a data center.
2 In the navigator, right-click the data center and select Distributed Switch > New Distributed Switch.
3 On the Name and location page, type a name for the new distributed switch, or accept the generated
name, and click Next.
vSphere Networking
VMware, Inc. 30