Creating Virtual Switches

To provide network access for virtual machines, you must create virtual network switches (vswitches) for them. This section describes how to create a new vswitch on the VM Host. The vswitch is used by the virtual machine to connect to the network: one or more virtual machines connect to the vswitch and the vswitch is connected to a VM Host's physical network device.

To create a vswitch, select CreateVirtual Switch, then perform the following steps.

(Required) Enter a name for the new vswitch.
- The name must be 8 characters or fewer.
- The allowable characters are A-Z, a-z, 0-9, dash (-), underscore (_), and period (.).
- The name cannot begin with a dash and cannot remain blank.

Select whether the vswitch should be a dedicated or a shareable vswitch. The default is shareable.




	NOTE: The terms "shareable" and "dedicated" refer to how the switch is assigned to the virtual machines: A dedicated vswitch can be used by only one started virtual machine at a time and is dedicated to providing network throughput to that virtual machine. More than one virtual machine can have the same dedicated switch as a resource, but only one is allowed to start. A shareable vswitch can be used by all the associated virtual machines at any given same time.

(Required) Select the VM Host's physical network device that will be the physical backing of the vswitch.
The selectable choices include the following:
- All physical network cards configured on the VM Host
- All APAs (Automatic Port Aggregation) configured on the VM Host
  The display will show the APA name in one column and the individual cards in the next column; however, the letters "APA" will not appear in either column.
- None
  This creates a local vswitch. When no physical network device on the VM Host is chosen, the vswitch is a local vswitch. A local vswitch has no connection with any physical network device on the VM Host, so the resulting vswitch can directly contact only other virtual machines using the same local vswitch.
Select whether to boot the vswitch after it is created. The default is to boot the vswitch.

After you click OK, the new vswitch is:

Created using the hpvmnet command.
Created on the host (if the vswitch is a dedicated vswitch) using the hpvmdevmgmt command.
Booted using the hpvmnet command, if you have selected to boot the vswitch.

Refer to the online help for more information about operating VM Manager.

Creating Virtual Switches

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