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mfarahmand98
Contributor
Contributor
‎01-08-2019 10:30 PM

Connecting virtual machines inside a virtual machine to a physical switch

As an assignment, we're supposed to create the following scenario:

3ZziQ.png

We only have access to one PC for the servers. Our instructor suggested creating a virtual machine inside VMWare Workstation and loading up VMWare ESXi in the virtual machine; then we are to create 4 virtual machines inside ESXi for the servers mentioned above.

I don't quite understand why do we have to go through all this trouble. We've only been breathly introduced to Workstation so I don't know what advantage does ESXi have over just creating four virtual machines on the system. On the other hand, I don't know how to make the four virtual machines inside ESXi accessible through the switch. I thought of setting both Workstation and ESXi to bridge mode but I couldn't find anything online backing this idea. I'd appreciate it if you could help me with these two questions.

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2 Replies
MikeStoica
Expert
Expert
‎01-08-2019 11:57 PM

ESXi is the virtualization platform where you can create and run virtual machine and together with vCenter is an enterprise solution. You can create the VMs on ESXi and connect them to a vSwitch on the ESXi. That vSwitch needs to be connected to the  NIC of the virtualized ESXi ( you said that you are going to create a VM with ESXi on it).

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Dashers
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎01-09-2019 02:14 AM

Unless you're looking to learn about ESXi, it's redundant in your scenario if you've got a desktop with VMWare Workstation installed.  Create four virtual machines in Workstation.  Set them all to use the same virtual network, which should be a bridged network bound to the physical nic on the switch.  No need to make it complicated.

https://www.kjctech.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Virtual-Network-Editor-2013-10-22-15_32_04.png

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