We are here to configure. Distributed Switch has been implemented to facilitate virtual networks management in VMmanager

Similar to physical equipment, virtual servers are interconnected via a network, which is just as virtual. This has become possible due to VLAN technology, which allows building a virtual network based on physical infrastructure. Switches are used to establish the connection. They allow to group virtual machines (VMs) using a certain logic to optimize management of network resources and traffic, as well as to create isolated network for business tasks and to enhance data security.

For a long time the administrators had been working with a network of VMs and grouped them manually only. This process involves multiple routine operations, which increase personnel labor efforts related to network configuration and generate the risk of human error. A solution was needed for infrastructure owners to optimize the configuration process, even more so for highly loaded infrastructures with hundreds of VMs.

The idea to automate VM network configuration and to facilitate their creation process belongs to VMware engineers. Also, they were the ones to coin the term Distributed Switch among administrators, which came up in vSphere 4.0. The idea behind this technology is automatic configuration of virtual machine connection using virtual switch within the whole cluster rather than a standalone server. When a virtual machine is created, the engineer can connect it to a switch directly from virtualization platform interface. Then the platform itself performs the required connections and configuration on a virtualization server. As a result, the new VM becomes a part of the existing network.

Beginning from May 2024, Distributed Switch is available for VMmanager platform users. This is the analog of VMware distributed switch. It functions at cluster level and allows automating virtual machine connection to the network you need. Let us explain what has changed for VMmanager users.

Previously, the connection of virtual machines created in the nodes was manual. The following actions were required to connect them to other machines in the network:

In order to migrate VM to another cluster node, platform administrator had to perform similar network configuration for each backup node.

Distributed Switch allows configuring nodes in the cluster automatically and based on a template. If cluster nodes have similar connection to the network, it becomes possible to configure VM connection to the required VLAN quickly. All you need to do is create a new port group in Distributed Switch for connection of virtual machines to this group, while the configuration will be applied to all cluster nodes. Here is how the configuration looks at present:

Here is the example of template-based network diagram:

This diagram shows how the connection of nodes to port groups (dpg1, dpg2, dpg3) is configured with various uplink interfaces using eth- и bond- type interfaces.

The diagram below shows the template upon completion of preliminary works, with a single network setting configuration.

This configuration is used to differentiate network access among various users.

The emergence of Distributed Switch in VMmanager provides administrators with a possibility to cut down labor efforts involved in virtual machine configuration due to a decrease in the number of routine operations when connecting VM to network. Among distributed switch advantages there are:

That being said, it is still possible to configure network in VMmanager manually.

Find out more about Distributed Switch functions in the documentation.