Connecting two vSwitches?

[iqbala02]

Hi,

I am using VMware ESX 4.1 and using another windows based computer with VSphere Client.

I have two virtual machines, two virtual switches and two vmnics.

VM1 is connected to VSwitch0 and Vmnic0

VM2 is conected to VSwitch1 and Vmnic1

I want to connect the two virtual switches (VSwitch0 and VSwitch1) to unable connection between each VMs.

Can anyone guide me thru? I useful link would be great

Ta.

[idle-jam]

what you could do is create vswitch2 with no VMNIC. then add 2nd network adapter to these two VM and they will talk.

[bulletprooffool]

vSwitches behave in the same way as physical switches - so if you have 2 vSwitches (even on the same physical ESX host) you still need to create a link between these switches.

Now - if the subnets for both VMs are exactly the same, then you could in theory just do away with the vSwitches - but I am guessing that you are running your VMs on different subnets? If this is the case, you need to provide routing between these vSwitches.

you have 2 options - you could ewither patch the vswitches (physical Nics on the ESX host) to your network ann attach these to some sort of a 'router on a stick' or if you would like to maintain the communication on your VMware host, use a Virtual Appliance (like Vyatta) to act as the router between your 2 subnets.

The Vyatta would need to have 2 NIcs assigned to it (one on each vSwitch) - I do have a quick config guide on my blog http://www.get-virtual.info/2011/02/18/using-vyatta-as-firewall-in-esxesxi-for-private-network-simul...

When trying to figure this out . . simply imagine that the vSwitches are physical switches and the NICs that are assocuiated with these vSwitches are the 'uplink' ports on your switch.

[iqbala02]

Thank you for your quick response.

I think I am either explaing it wrong or my ideas are not clear to be explained.

I am not running an enterprise network, I am just running a test to laern vmware and I am completely new to it.

I have a computer using as Host installed with VMware ESX 4.1. This computer consist of 2 physical NIC. These two NIC are connected to 2 physical computers with a traffic generator.

Now, I want to create two virtual machines and assign each of the physical NIC to each of the VM.

I have 2 vSwitches,

vSwitch0 has a vmnic0 uplink

vSwitch1 has a vmnic1 uplink.

I will be using different subnets but for now I am using the same subnets so routing is not an issue right now.

P.S. I am quite lost so any help is a bonus.

Thank you so much.

[opbz · Accepted solution]

Hi

Think your problem is one of understangin how networking works in vmware.

You do not assign vmnics to VMs you assign them to vswitches. You can assing multiple nics to your vswitches.

If you want VMs to communicate with each other you put them on the same vswitch. If you want them to communicate with other physical machines they need to have vmnics connected that are also connected to switches that are also connected to your other physical machines.

[DSTAVERT]

I would follow the Basics of Virtual Networking link first. It will help getting a handle on how this works.

http://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/virtual-networking/

It would also be helpful to follow some of the Getting Started webcasts.

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-14673