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Components of a Virtual Network

Virtual networks are composed of these elements:

• Virtual switch. Like a physical switch, a virtual switch lets you connect other networking components together. Virtual switches are available automatically when you install VMware GSX Server. They are created as needed by the VMware GSX Server software, up to a total of 99 switches. You can connect one or more virtual machines to a switch. >>More on connecting a virtual machine to a switch

• Bridge. The Bridge lets you connect your virtual machine to the local area network (LAN) used by your host computer. It connects the virtual Ethernet switch in your virtual machine to the physical Ethernet adapter in your host computer. It is set up automatically when you create a new virtual machine using bridged networking. >>More on bridged networking

  Additional virtual bridges can be set up for use in custom configurations that require connections to more than one LAN through more than one physical Ethernet adapter on the host computer. >>More on custom networking configurations

• Host-only adapter. The host-only adapter is a virtual Ethernet adapter that appears to your host operating system as Host-Only Interface. It allows you to communicate between your host computer and the virtual machines on that host computer. The software that creates the host-only adapter is installed when you install VMware GSX Server and choose to make host-only networking available to your virtual machines. A host-only adapter is created automatically when you create a new virtual machine using host-only networking. Additional host-only adapters can be set up for use in custom configurations that need them. >>More on host-only networking

  With host-only networking, virtual machines are not connected to any external network unless you set up special software on the host computer; for example, you can set up a proxy server to connect the host-only adapter to the physical network adapter. >>More on setting up a proxy server

• NAT. The network address translation (NAT) device allows you to connect your virtual machines to an external network in situations where you have only one IP network address and it is being used by the host computer. For example, you can use NAT to connect your virtual machines to the Internet through a dial-up connection on the host computer or through the host computer's Ethernet adapter, wireless Ethernet adapter or Token Ring card. >>More on NAT

  The NAT device is available automatically when you install VMware GSX Server. It is set up automatically if you choose NAT as the networking option when you set up a virtual machine.

• DHCP server. The dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server provides IP network addresses to virtual machines in host-only and NAT configurations. The host-only and NAT configurations use different DHCP servers. >>More on VMware GSX Server DHCP server

• Ethernet adapter. One virtual switch is set up for your virtual machine when you create it with the Configuration Wizard using any type of networking. It appears to the guest operating system as an AMD PCNET PCI adapter. You can create and configure up to three virtual switches in each virtual machine using the Configuration Editor. >>More on how networking appears in the guest operating system

Related links:

• Adding a virtual switch to a virtual machine
• Using bridged networking
• Using custom networking configurations
• Using host-only networking
• Accessing external networks under host-only networking
• Using VMware GSX Server's DHCP server
• Using NAT networking

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