ESXi 5 Networking Config

[cojaxx8]

Hello,

Say i have a single ESXi 5 Host with 2 VM's and 2 Physical NICs.

On the host there have been 2 vSwitches configured, and each NIC is assigned to its own vSwitch.

Each VM is assigned to its own vSwitch as well.

Does traffic going from VM1 to VM2 go through the vSwitch -> Out through the Physical Nic > Through the Physical Switch > Back in the other Nic > Through the other vSwitch > and to VM2

OR

Does it somehow go directly to from VM1 to VM2 since they are on the same host?

PS. There are no VLANs configured, just a very basic network.

Thanks

Peter

[abhilashhb · Accepted solution]

Hey Peter,

They are called a vSwitch for a reason. If they are two different ones they cannot communicate directly. The traffic has to go through the physical NIC.

As you mentioned, VM1 to VM2 goes through the vSwitch ---> Physical Nic ---> Physical Switch ---> other Phisical Nic ---> other vSwitch ---> and to VM2

Alternatively you could have both machines sitting on the same vSwitch and have multiple Uplinks connected to that vSwitch.

[tomtom901]

If it is a basic network, you would be better of by creating 1 vSwitch with both uplinks. ESXi will take care of loadbalancing automatically and that way, you have some form of redundancy because you are using 2 uplinks for the vSwitch. As an added bonus, traffic between the virtual machines will not create (work)load on the pysical switch, as a vSwitch is operating at layer 2, it will handle this traffic within the vSwitch.

[cojaxx8]

Thanks for the responses, you have both confirmed what i originally thought

Previously there was 1 vSwitch with both NICs connected in a redundancy configuration. I'm trialing this other method out atm, just to see if it improves the performance of his network slightly.

Cheers and have a good day.

Peter