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dj214
Contributor
Contributor

Quick Networking Question

Very new to VMware and have quick question. I understand I think, the concept of virtual switches and the networking involved in the virtual environment itself. But, when I built the first 2 virtual machines, there was no connectivity to our physical LAN. I looked in device manager on the virtual servers themselves and found tht drivers had not loaded for the network cards on the servers. I found and loaded the drivers but they come up as 10 mb cards. This kills any transfers out of the virtual environment. Am I missing something here with regards to setup. These servers need connectivity to the physical LAN for domain level communications etc. All my virtual connections are GIG and transfer is great. But again, the onboard 10mbs cards onboard just don't seem correct? Cany anyone enlighten me?

Thanks

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oreeh
Immortal
Immortal

There's a difference between the actual network speed and the speed displayed in the VM.

Depending on the configured NIC / installed VMware tools you get:

10Mbit - AMD PCnet

100Mbit - VMXNET (VMware Accelerated AMD PCnet)

1Gbit - Intel e1000

Install the VMware tools. This will give you a better overall performance and the VMXNET NIC.

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weinstein5
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Immortal

Some questions - what network cards are oyu using and are they supported by ESX? Can you set the speed and duplex of the physical cards to Gig?

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gary1012
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Expert

Presumed that ESX is the host; is that correct? Have you:

Checked to see if your network connections are in access or trunked mode on your physical switch?

If trunked, are you using VLAN tags? If so, did you set them up on the vSwitches?

Checked the vmnics for link speed?

Loaded vmtools on each VM?

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dj214
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Thanks - they're coming up AMD PCNET. I read about the 3 different types of adapters available but not sure how to go about changing the type. Naturally, I'd like to go with GIG. I don't recall seeing any option for changing or choosing which to load. Thanks again for the reply,

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gary1012
Expert
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If you load the vmtools, it should change the NIC for you. Use the VI Client and go to the VM. Open the console for the VM and log in. From there, you should see an option to load the vmtools in one of the pull down menus. Windows OSs will automatically install the drivers. In Linux VMs, I believe you have to run a script and rpm package.

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oreeh
Immortal
Immortal

Don't forget that this is virtualized hardware!!!

Therefore the used vNIC has almost no impact on the actual transfer rate and the displayed link speed is completely irrelevant.

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dj214
Contributor
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These are on a DELL onboard, believe they are Intel server adapters. I'm talking aobut the virtual servers themselves. So when install Windows 2003, the network cards on the server itself come up with a bang in device manager and are listed as AMD PCNET. I can see no way to change this.

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oreeh
Immortal
Immortal

Simply install the VMware tools.

dj214
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks Gary - loaded tools and I'll test transfer rates. From server to server it was fantastic but from server to outside world, it was slow. Thanks again. I'll repost if the results are still slow.

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dj214
Contributor
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Thanks - this is by far the best support I have ever ecountered from a community environment. I no sooner posted my question and got yoour response and several others almost immediately and they are all very helpful. thanks again !!

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