Configure advanced settings

Advanced virtual switch settings include the following:

Port mirroring—Copies the packets passing through a port to a port that connects to a data monitoring device for packet analysis and network diagnosis.
DHCP—Provides a framework to assign configuration information to hosts, including IP addresses, gateway addresses, and DNS server addresses.

Configure port mirroring

The VM where the source port resides cannot be in VLAN 1.
You can select multiple NICs that connect to the same virtual switch as the source ports.
You can select a maximum of two NICs that connect to the same virtual switch as the destination ports. If you do not specify a destination port for port mirroring, mirrored packets are sent out of the uplink port of the host.

Procedure

From the left navigation pane, select Data Center > Virtualization > Cluster name > Host name.
Click the vSwitches tab.
Click More for the target virtual switch, and then click Advanced.
Add, edit, or delete port mirroring as needed, and then click Close.

Parameters

Probe VLAN ID: Specify the dedicated VLAN for transmitting mirrored packets.
Direction: Select the mirroring direction.
- Inbound Direction—Traffic from a VM to the virtual switch.
- Outbound Direction—Traffic from the virtual switch to a VM.
- Bidirectional—Traffic in both directions.
Source port: Specify the port on a VM.
Destination port: Specify the port on the virtual switch that connects the switch to the data monitoring device.

Configuring DHCP

For a medium- or large-sized network, configuring VLAN-based DHCP services enables high-efficiency IP allocation. Each DHCP service takes effect in its specified VLAN.

The DHCP server of a DHCP service uses the start IP address in the IP address pool of the DHCP service.
The IP address pools of DHCP services cannot overlap.
After you delete a DHCP service from a virtual switch, VMs that have been assigned IP addresses lose the IP addresses after a period of time, and VMs newly join the virtual switch cannot obtain IP addresses.

Procedure

From the left navigation pane, select Data Center > Virtualization > Cluster name > Host name.
Click the vSwitches tab.
Click More for the target virtual switch, and then click Advanced.
Click the DHCP Services tab.
Add, edit, or delete DHCP services as needed, and then click Close.

Parameters

VLAN ID: Enter a VLAN ID for the DHCP service. On a virtual switch, the VLAN ID of a DHCP service must unique. A VM configured with a virtual switch and VLAN ID can automatically obtain an IP address.
Start Address: Enter the start IP address of the IP address pool. The DHCP server uses this IP address. The IP address pool cannot contain multicast or loopback addresses. The start IP address cannot start with 127.
End Address: Enter the end IP address of the IP address pool. The end address must be higher than the start address. An IP address pool can contain a maximum of 5000 IP addresses. The IP address pool cannot contain multicast or loopback addresses. The end IP address cannot start with 127.
Subnet Mask: Specify the subnet mask. Make sure the subnet mask places the start address and end address in the same subnet and avoid address overlapping.
Gateway Address: Enter the IP address of the gateway.
DNS Address: Enter the IP address of the DNS server.
Lease Duration: Specify the lease duration of the DHCP service in hours. If you do not specify this parameter, the DHCP service never expires.
Address Pool Usage: Number of assigned IP addresses and number of available IP addresses. Each box represents an IP address. A green box represents an assigned IP address, and a gray box represents an available IP address. You can hover the cursor over a box to view detailed information about the IP address.