Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

VMware Networking

When configuring a virtual network switch, you will configure three different network connection types: Virtual Machine, VMkernel, and Service Console. VMware refers to these as different kinds of port groups. A port group specifies port configuration options, such as VLAN tagging or bandwidth limitations for devices assigned to that group. The switch handles the mapping of virtual devices to physical devices. In a default installation of ESX you should have a Service Console and Virtual Machine port group.

The Service Console port group provides network access to the service console and is used by the virtual center or VI Client to control the server. The Virtual Machine port group is a default port group that will bridge your virtual machines to your physical network devices. Each network card on a virtual machine must be assigned to a virtual machine port group. For a high availability cluster of ESX servers, you will need to add a VMkernel port group as well. This is the port group the hypervisors will use to speak with each other and for moving virtual machines between servers.

Physical interfaces on a server are given a name beginning with vmnic. The service console’s interfaces are given names beginning with vswif. Both of these will show up if you run ifconfig from the service console.

We won’t cover virtual switch configuration further, but these terms will help you better understand the network and switch-related commands.