Best Nic For VM?

[Spartacus32]

When creating a new Guest VM and it comes up to the nic section the choices are

E1000

VMXNET2 Enhanced

VMXNET3

Which one is the best to choose now just setting up a guest windows vm nothing fancy

[masudhussain]

HI,

Network adapter choices depend on the guest operating system running on the virtual machine and VM version.

Please refer the bellow urls (Knowledge Base)

VMware KB: Choosing a network adapter for your virtual machine

[Spartacus32]

Okay Masudhussain,

   I will be using windows 2008r2 on a dellT420 after looking at that article it explains the different types and all but I am still not sure what to use nothing fancy on the network or server. I can choose the VMXNET2 enhanced and that will keep performance at a better level the the e1000 right?

Also how do you make the guest console screen larger?

Thanks again

[masudhussain]

Hi,

If you installed ESXI 5.0 or later thn you can use VMXNET 3 however for vmxnet the driver is not provided by guest operating system. you need to make sure that Vmware tool is installed on guest  to get the appropriate driver for guest os accordingly.

NOTE: in case vmware tool service stopped your guest network will also get disconnected.

Further for larger screen you can press ctlr+alt+enter key to get full screen also press same key to exit full screen. please press key after you open the VM console.

[Spartacus32]

Thanks again I was wanting to use the VMXNET2 enhanced it better then the 3 right? And that is good to know about the vmware tools but that would be like a service in windows os if it were to stop and bring down say the exchange server...

Thats not to scary...Thanks again

[masudhussain]

VMXNET 3 is latest and It offers all the features available in VMXNET 2

[dariusd]

Hi masudhussain,

masudhussain wrote:

NOTE: in case vmware tool service stopped your guest network will also get disconnected.

I don't believe this is correct.  I'm not aware of any dependency of the virtual NIC drivers upon the VMware Tools service.

You need to install VMware Tools in order for the driver to be installed.  Once the NIC driver is installed, it should operate just like any other device driver.

The VMware Tools Service handles a number of tasks unrelated to the virtual NIC.  Stopping the VMware Tools service should not disconnect your network.  If it does, IMHO there is something very wrong with your VM.

Cheers,

--

Darius

[masudhussain]

Hi Darius, OK, if you have tested thn i need to re-verify it once again in my testing LAB.

Earlier I was facing this same issue in my production server and whenever i just started the vmware tool service the NIC get detected automatically and communication get starts thn i changed the NIC to E1000 of that VM and my problem resolved as the driver is installed by guest os itself.

Give me sometime so that i can test once again and will update you on this same post

Thanks,

hussain