What is VMware Networking and How Does It Work?
Here you will find out:
- what is VMware networking
- what are components of VMware network
- when DiskInternals can help you
Are you ready? Let's read!
VMware networking concepts
All VMware ESX networking capabilities are managed by VMware Virtual Center. A virtual network can provide a lot of possibilities:
- you can network virtual machines into a network,
- you can create complex networks within a single ESX Server host, you can create complex networks within several ESX Server hosts already for larger production deployments, testing,
- the same protocols can be used to communicate servers to each other.
ESX Server virtual switches are VLAN compliant. In this case, the VM can operate with one or more virtual adapters with different IP addresses and MAC addresses. As a result, from a network perspective, virtual machines have the same properties as physical machines.
This article will help you gain knowledge about the basic design of a VMware network and its capabilities.
Components of VMware network
So, first at what VM networking consists of:
- 1. Let's look at Virtual switches - VSwitch. This is the core of the network; vSwitch transfers traffic just like physical switches. However, the vSwitch does not store a MAC address table for devices that it does not know about directly, but only has all the necessary information about the MAC addresses of virtual machines and VMkernel port devices directly connected to the virtual switch. You can use two different types of virtual switches: standard vSwitch (SVS) and distributed vSwitch (DVS). The latter requires the availability of an Enterprise Plus license and configuration at the vCenter level. SVS can do without these conditions.
- 2. Virtual ports on vSwitch. Their work is no different from physical ports. There are also VMkernel ports, which in turn directly interact with the ESXi host VMkernel. These ports are required to provide adequate storage, vMotion, and network management traffic.
- 3. Physical uplinks. They are required to provide a traffic path for inbound and outbound vSwitch traffic.
- 4. Port groups. This helps to logically separate the virtual ports available on a particular vSwitch by assigning VLANs for traffic.
- 5. VLANs are virtual networks that allow traffic to be logically separated over the same physical infrastructure. That is, the network is divided into different parts without physically separating the networks. Broadcast traffic can grow exponentially as the network grows, and the purpose of VLANs is to segment the broadcast domains. VLANs can be set up in several ways — virtual guest tagging (VGT), virtual switch tagging (VST), or external switch tagging (EST).
- 6. VMware vCenter is a program that allows you to centrally manage a VM and enable additional useful features. The core product required to enable enterprise features (e.g., high availability, distributed resource scheduling, fault tolerance, etc.).
VMware networking and VMFS Recovery
To recover VMDK files, lost snapshots - use DiskInternals VMFS Recovery. This application is intended for use by high-level professionals, so the competence and effectiveness of the program is obvious. At the same time, the VMFS Recovery interface is intuitive for any user, from novice to professional. The utility can provide full access to both healthy and damaged virtual disks used on an ESX/ESXi Server or in VMware vSphere. All recovery steps are performed by the recovery wizard. If necessary, you can disable the wizard and perform all the steps yourself. Use the below step-by-step guide to make data recovery easier and better:
Download and carefully install the DiskInternals VMFS Recovery on your laptop or PC.
Establish an SSH connection and proceed to the next step.
Select and open local drive or SSH.
Next, go through a disk scan and mount the necessary VMDK files.
Also, open this file for free and view the files.
After that, data export using the Export Wizard will start - it will become available after purchasing a license. You can also use technical support throughout the year - this is included in the license price.