In the VMware Host Client, you can configure various virtual switch settings, such as link discovery, NIC teaming, and traffic shaping.

View Virtual Switch Information in the VMware Host Client

In the VMware Host Client, you can view information about virtual switches, such as configuration, network details, virtual switch topology, and so on.

Procedure

  1. Click Networking in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Virtual switches.
  2. Click on a switch from the list of available virtual switches.
    Information about virtual switch configuration, network details, and virtual switch topology is displayed.

Add a Standard Virtual Switch in the VMware Host Client

In the VMware Host Client, you can add a standard virtual switch to provide network connectivity for the host that you are managing and for the virtual machines on that host, and to handle VMkernel traffic. Depending on the type of connection that you want to create, you can create vSphere standard switch with a VMkernel adapter, connect an existing physical network adapter to the new switch, or create the switch with a virtual machine port group.

Procedure

  1. Right-click Networking in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Add standard vSwitch in the pop-up menu.
  2. (Optional) Click Add uplink to add a new physical uplink to a virtual switch.
  3. Enter a name for the virtual switch and click Create virtual switch.
  4. Select an uplink for the virtual switch.
  5. Expand Link discovery and select an option for the virtual switch mode.
    Operation Description
    Listen ESXi detects and displays information about the associated physical switch port, but information about the vSphere Standard Switch is not available to the switch administrator.
    Advertise ESXi makes information about the vSphere Standard Switch available to the switch administrator, but does not detect and display information about the physical switch.
    Both ESXi detects and displays information about the associated physical switch and makes information about the vSphere Standard Switch available to the switch administrator.
    None ESXi does not detect or display information about the associated physical switch port, and information about the vSphere Standard Switch is not available to the switch administrator.
  6. In the Protocol section, select Cisco Discovery Protocol from the drop-down menu.
  7. Expand Security and accept or reject promiscuous mode, MAC address changes, and forged transmits of the virtual machines attached to the standard switch.
    Option Description
    Promiscuous mode
    • Reject. The VM network adapter receives only frames that are addressed to the virtual machine.
    • Accept.The virtual switch forwards all frames to the virtual machine in compliance with the active VLAN policy for the port to which the VM network adapter is connected.
    Note: Promiscuous mode is insecure mode of operation. Firewalls, port scanners, intrusion detection systems, must run in promiscuous mode.
    MAC address changes
    • Reject. If the guest OS changes the effective MAC address of the virtual machine to a value that is different from the MAC address of the VM network adapter (set in the .vmx configuration file), the switch drops all inbound frames to the adapter.

      If the guest OS changes the effective MAC address of the virtual machine back to the MAC address of the VM network adapter, the virtual machine receives frames again.

    • Accept. If the guest OS changes the effective MAC address of the virtual machine to a value that is different from the MAC address of the VM network adapter, the switch allows frames to the new address to pass.
    Forged transmits
    • Reject. The switch drops any outbound frame from a virtual machine adapter with a source MAC address that is different from the one in the .vmx configuration file.
    • Accept. The switch does not perform filtering, and permits all outbound frames.
  8. Click Add.

Remove a Standard Virtual Switch in the VMware Host Client

You can remove the virtual standard switch if you no longer need it.

Procedure

  1. Click Networking in the VMware Host Client inventory and click the Virtual switches tab.
  2. Right-click the virtual switch that you want to remove from the list and click Remove.
  3. Click Yes.

Add a Physical Uplink to a Virtual Switch in the VMware Host Client

You can connect multiple adapters to a single vSphere standard switch to provide NIC teaming. The team can share traffic and provide failover.

Procedure

  1. Click Networking in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Virtual switches.
  2. Click a virtual switch from the list and click Add uplink.
  3. Select a physical NIC from the available options.
  4. Click Save.

Edit Virtual Switch Settings in the VMware Host Client

In the VMware Host Client, you can edit virtual switch settings, such as the virtual switch uplinks.

Procedure

  1. Click Networking in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Virtual switches.
  2. Right-click the virtual switch that you want to edit and click Edit Settings.
  3. (Optional) Click Add uplink to add a new physical uplink to the virtual switch.
  4. Change the maximum transmission unit (MTU).
    The MTU improves the networking efficiency by increasing the amount of payload data transmitted with a single packet, that is, enabling jumbo frames.
  5. (Optional) Click the Remove icon (close) to remove the old uplink from the virtual switch.
  6. Expand Link discovery and select an option for the virtual switch mode.
    Operation Description
    Listen ESXi detects and displays information about the associated physical switch port, but information about the vSphere Standard Switch is not available to the switch administrator.
    Advertise ESXi makes information about the vSphere Standard Switch available to the switch administrator, but does not detect and display information about the physical switch.
    Both ESXi detects and displays information about the associated physical switch and makes information about the vSphere Standard Switch available to the switch administrator.
    None ESXi does not detect or display information about the associated physical switch port, and information about the vSphere Standard Switch is not available to the switch administrator.
  7. In the Protocol section, select Cisco Discovery Protocol from the drop-down menu.
  8. Expand Security and accept or reject promiscuous mode, MAC address changes, and forged transmits of the virtual machines attached to the standard switch.
    Option Description
    Promiscuous mode
    • Reject. The VM network adapter receives only frames that are addressed to the virtual machine.
    • Accept.The virtual switch forwards all frames to the virtual machine in compliance with the active VLAN policy for the port to which the VM network adapter is connected.
    Note: Promiscuous mode is insecure mode of operation. Firewalls, port scanners, intrusion detection systems, must run in promiscuous mode.
    MAC address changes
    • Reject. If the guest OS changes the effective MAC address of the virtual machine to a value that is different from the MAC address of the VM network adapter (set in the .vmx configuration file), the switch drops all inbound frames to the adapter.

      If the guest OS changes the effective MAC address of the virtual machine back to the MAC address of the VM network adapter, the virtual machine receives frames again.

    • Accept. If the guest OS changes the effective MAC address of the virtual machine to a value that is different from the MAC address of the VM network adapter, the switch allows frames to the new address to pass.
    Forged transmits
    • Reject. The switch drops any outbound frame from a virtual machine adapter with a source MAC address that is different from the one in the .vmx configuration file.
    • Accept. The switch does not perform filtering, and permits all outbound frames.
  9. (Optional) Expand NIC teaming and configure the following components.
    Option Description
    Load Balancing Specify how to choose an uplink.
    • Route based on IP hash. Choose an uplink based on a hash of the source and destination IP addresses of each packet. For non-IP packets, whatever is at those offsets is used to compute the hash.
    • Route based on source MAC hash. Choose an uplink based on a hash of the source Ethernet.
    • Route based on originating port ID. Choose an uplink based on the originating port ID.
    • Use explicit failover order. Always use the highest order uplink from the list of Active adapters which passes failover detection criteria.
    Note: IP-based teaming requires the physical switch to be configured with EtherChannel. For all other options, EtherChannel must be deactivated.
    Network Failover Detection Specify the method to use for failover detection.
    • Link Status only. Relies only on the link status that the network adapter provides. This option detects failures, such as cable pulls and physical switch power failures, but not configuration errors, such as a physical switch port being blocked by spanning tree or that is misconfigured to the wrong VLAN or cable pulls on the other side of a physical switch.
    • Beacon only. Sends out and listens for beacon probes on all NICs in the team and uses this information, in addition to link status, to determine link failure. This detects many of the failures previously mentioned that are not detected by link status alone.
    Note: Do not use beacon probing with IP-hash load balancing.
    Notify Switches

    Select Yes, No, or Inherit from vSwitch to notify switches in the case of failover.

    If you select Yes, whenever a virtual NIC is connected to the distributed switch or whenever that virtual NIC’s traffic might be routed over a different physical NIC in the team because of a failover event, a notification is sent out over the network to update the lookup tables on physical switches. In almost all cases, this process is desirable for the lowest latency of failover occurrences and migrations with vMotion.

    Note: Do not use this option when the virtual machines using the port group are using Microsoft Network Load Balancing in unicast mode. No such issue exists with NLB running in multicast mode.
    Failback Select Yes, No, or Inherit from vSwitch to deactivate or activate failback.

    This option determines how a physical adapter is returned to active duty after recovering from a failure. If failback is set to Yes (default), the adapter is returned to active duty immediately upon recovery, displacing the standby adapter that took over its slot, if any. If failback is set to No, a failed adapter is left inactive even after recovery until another currently active adapter fails, requiring its replacement.

    Failover Order Specify how to distribute the work load for uplinks. If you want to use some uplinks but reserve others for emergencies in case the uplinks in use fail, set this condition by moving them into different groups:
    • Active Uplinks. Continue to use the uplink when the network adapter connectivity is up and active.
    • Standby Uplinks . Use this uplink if one of the active adapter’s connectivities is down.
    Note: When using IP-hash load balancing, do not configure standby uplinks.
  10. (Optional) To configure traffic shaping, expand Traffic shaping, click Enabled, and specify the following parameters.
    Option Description
    Average Bandwidth Establishes the number of bits per second to allow across a port, averaged over time—the allowed average load.
    Peak Bandwidth The maximum number of bits per second to allow across a port when it is sending or receiving a burst of traffic. This tops the bandwidth used by a port whenever it is using its burst bonus.
    Burst Size The maximum number of bytes to allow in a burst. If this parameter is set, a port may gain a burst bonus when it doesn’t use all its allocated bandwidth. Whenever the port needs more bandwidth than specified by Average Bandwidth, it may be allowed to temporarily transmit data at a higher speed if a burst bonus is available. This parameter tops the number of bytes that may be accumulated in the burst bonus and then transferred at a higher speed.
    Traffic shaping policy is applied to the traffic of each virtual network adapter attached to the virtual switch.
  11. Click Save.