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.
Virtual switches in ESX Server adhere to VLAN standards. In this scenario, the virtual machine can run with one or more virtual adapters that have various MAC and IP addresses. As a result, virtual machines and physical computers are equivalent from a network standpoint.
You may learn more about a VMware network's features and basic design from this article.
Components of VMware network
So, first at what VM networking consists of:
- 1. Let's examine VSwitch, a virtual switch. The vSwitch moves traffic just like physical switches, making it the hub of the network. The vSwitch only holds the essential data regarding the MAC addresses of virtual machines and VMkernel port devices that are directly linked to the virtual switch. It does not, however, store a MAC address table for devices that it does not directly know about. Standard vSwitch (SVS) and distributed vSwitch (DVS) are two types of virtual switches you can employ. The latter requires the presence of an Enterprise Plus license and appropriate vCenter settings. SVS doesn't require these circumstances.
- 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.