#vnetwork

Networking vNetwork Standard Switches (vSS)

vSS configurations are owned by the ESXi host. Host -> Configuration -> Networking

If VLANs are not used a separate vSwitch should be created for each IP Subnet

Virtual machine network adapters connect to a port group.

A port group on a vSS can be configured with only 1 VLAN ID.

By default a vSS has 120 usable ports (128 - 8 for internal use by host). The maximum is 4088 (4096-8).

Changing the number of available ports on a vSS requires a host reboot.

A vSwitch with no physical uplinks is called a virtual intranet or an internal only switch.

A physical switch port that is configured to tag traffic on multiple VLANs is referred to as a trunk port.  A physical switch port that is configured to pass traffic for a single VLAN is an access port.

Multiple physical uplinks connected to a vSwitch are called a NIC Team.

Beacon probing and Link State are valid failure identification methods for NIC Teaming.

Beacon probing can identify upstream connection failures. Beacon probing requires a minimum of 3 uplinks. Route based on IP Hash load balancing should NOT be used with Beacon probing.

The Notify Switches option ensures physical switches are updated when a virtual NIC changes or a failover occurs.

The Failback option is set to allow a standby adapter to fail back to the active adapter when connectivity is restored.

Load balancing policies for a vSS are:

Route based on the originating virtual port ID

Route based on Source MAC

Route based on IP Hash

Use explicit failover

When using IP Hash load balancing all connected physical switch ports must be in etherchannel mode. Do not configure Standby uplinks when using IP Hash load balancing.

Default security policy for a vSS is Promiscuous Mode Reject, MAC Address Changes Accept, and Forged Transmits Accept.

MAC Address change security policy allows or denies inbound traffic to a VM with a user defined MAC address. Forged Transmits allow or denies outbound traffic from a VM with a user defined MAC address.

vSS only supports egress (outbound) traffic shaping.

Traffic shaping setting for a vSS

Average Bandwidth Kbits/sec

Peak Bandwidth Kbits/sec

Burst Size Kbytes

VMkernel ports are required for Management, vMotion, FT Logging, iSCSI (Software and Dependent), NFS, and Software FCoE.

If using Jumbo frames (MTU 9000) for storage it must be enabled on the vSwitch, VMkernel port, Physcial Switch and Storage array.