Isolated vSwitch behaviour

[fajarpri]

Hi all,

I want to ask.... if I create an isolated vSwitch (no connection to physical NIC) to do some network testing.

Will it behave like Cisco switch?

In particular I want to test Miscrosoft Network Load Balancing.

From Google and Cisco documentation it looks like I need to do some configuration on the Cisco switch to accommodate MS NLB (related the way it's virtual IP behaves, either Unicast or Multicast).

Will that be the case too with vSwitch?

[weinstein5]

The virtual switch is rather simple - not much your will be able to configue. What are the docs saying that need to be configured?

[fajarpri]

Hi David, thanks for replying.

The doc said:

1. If using unicast, simpler. But the bad side is MS NLB will flood the switches.

2. If using multicast, not flooding, but need to setup the switch to recognize the virtual multicast mac, and disable snooping.

If looks like vSwitch is much simpler, I guess it will work perfectly.

[farkasharry]

I would recommend you to use a distributed vistual switch for your tests as you can configure this much deeper, even on port level. a simple vswitch only allows you to configure portgroup level and even that quite simple...

[fajarpri]

Related to distributed vSwitch.

If I create an isolated one (without connected to physical NIC), will it be distributed to all hosts in the cluster?

If yes, that would be awesome!

[farkasharry · Accepted solution]

Yes, as distributed switches has one configuration applying across all hosts that is using this dvSwitch!