Configure vSwitches

A vSwitch provides software-based switching between VMs. A vSwitch operates in the similar way as a physical switch. A vSwitch forwards traffic among VMs connected to its virtual ports. After you bind a vSwitch to a physical NIC on a host, the host and VMs on the host can communicate with external networks. You must configure a vSwitch for a host after adding the host to a host pool or cluster.

You can select the types of networks for which you want to create a vSwitch. Supported network types include management network, storage network, and service network. After you add a host to CVM, the system automatically creates a default vSwitch named vswitch0 for the management network on the host. You must manually create vSwitches for the storage network and service network.

To configure a vSwitch:

1. On the cluster configuration page, click the vSwitches tab. Click Add vSwitch.

2. Configure the basic information for the vSwitch. This example creates a vSwitch for the storage network.. Enter stor in the Name field, select VEB from the Forwarding Mode list, and enter a VLAN ID in the VLAN ID field. Click Next.

 

3. Configure the host network settings. Click Select Host, select the hosts that will use the vSwitch and then click OK.

 

4. Configure physical interfaces for the selected hosts. Click the Configure Physical Interface icon  for a host. In the dialog box that opens, select the NICs to be used by the vSwitch. Configure the IP address and subnet network settings for the vSwitch. Repeat this step for all the hosts selected to use the vSwitch..

Only one gateway can be configured for a host. If multiple gateways are configured, unpredictable problems might error.

 

1. If only one NIC is selected for the vSwitch, click Finish to finish the vSwitch creation.

 

2. If multiple NICs are selected for the vSwitch, you need to configure the link aggregation mode and load balancing mode for the selected NICs.

• After selecting the NICs and configuring the IP address and other settings for the vSwitch, click Next.

 

• Select the link aggregation mode and load balancing mode, and then click Finish.

 

·          Make sure the physical switch connected to the vSwitch has the corresponding link aggregation settings. Otherwise, CVK might be unavailable. ·          If the vSwitch uses the dynamic link aggregation mode, the connected physical switch must also use the dynamic link aggregation mode. ·          If the vSwitch uses the static link aggregation mode and the basic or advanced load balancing mode, the connected physical switch must use the static link aggregation mode. If the vSwitch uses the active/standby link aggregation mode, do not configure link aggregation on the connected physical switch. ·          As a best practice, use the active/standby or basic link aggregation mode. The advanced link aggregation mode is not recommended.