Nested Virtualization vSphere, WorkStation.

[prashantvaria]

Hello VMware experts, I am new to virtualization technology. This question might be very silly but I am confused and needs clarification. I am studying VMware vSphere 6 and for that reason, I have created Lab on a Dell server. Server specs are 2 x Intell Xeon 8 cores each with 64 GB ram. I have installed windows server 2012 R2 on it and installed VMware Workstation. In workstation, I have installed 2 ESXi hosts, additionally, I have installed guests on each of the hosts. I am trying to check the communication from guests between hosts. I know that in order to communicate with the guest from one host and another host it has to go through physical Nic and then through an external switch. My host one is connected to VMnic1 and second is connected to VMnic2. when I ping from guest 1 to guest 2 is it using my Ethernet3 adapter to communicate between Vmnic1 and Vmnic2. My traffic is not going through an external switch. When I run Wireshark on the Physical interface I see ping packets. To check more I removed the switch and now only host 1 is connected to an uplink(physical link). I still able to ping between guests. I think they are communicating through Vmnic1 and Vmnic2. Please, if anyone can elaborate on this, I would really appreciate your help. I am struggling on this since last 2 days. Also, I want to master the Networking of VMware. How the physical link is associated with the virtual link. How their communication takes places. If anyone can link me to the resource which explains in detail of Virtual NICs then I would be very thankful.

[daphnissov]

If you already own server-class hardware, I'd recommend you skip installing Windows OS and then Workstation and go straight to ESXi. With ESXi installed on bare metal, you can create vCenter and other nested instances of ESXi to test in a similar fashion, but with better peformance and more options.

[RAJ_RAJ]

Hi ,

For Nested Setup please find the below setup

Nested Setup on Same Network

Install ESXi on Your Dell Server

Configure Management Network with 2 Nics -  ( Active - Active)

Deploy vCenter on the ESXi

Create New 3 VM with  2 CPU and 2 Core and 12 GB each and Install ESXi on that

For  4 Network Adapter on Each ESXi VM (you can use that for  Management , vMotion ,iSCSI etc)

Add all ESXI to vCenter

Nested Setup on Independent Network

Install ESXi on Your Dell Server

Configure Management Network with 2 Nics -  ( Active - Active)

Deploy vCenter and Later Move to independent Network

Create VM network without up link and map all VMs over there

Create Windows Server - AD and DNS ( and Two Nics one for Independent Network another Public to access through RDP )

Create New 3 VM with  2 CPU and 2 Core and 12 GB each and Install ESXi on that

For  4 Network Adapter on Each ESXi VM (you can use that for  Management , vMotion ,iSCSI etc)

Add all ESXI to vCenter