HP Integrity Virtual Machines Installation, Configuration, and Administration Version A.03.50

8 Creating Virtual Networks
You can allocate virtual network devices or virtual network interface cards (vNICs) to the guest
when you create the guest with the hpvmcreate command or when you modify an existing
guest using the hpvmmodify command, as described in Chapter 3 (page 31). Virtual network
interface cards are added using the same option that is used to add storage devices, but the
format of the argument to the command option is different. To add a vNIC to a guest, use the
following command option:
-a network:adaptertype:bus,device,mac-addr:vswitch:vswitch-name:portid:portnumber
However, before you can allocate the vswitch to the guest, you must create the virtual switch
(vswitch) using the hpvmnet command. This chapter describes how to create and manage
vswitches, including:
• Section 8.1: “Introduction to Virtual Network Configuration” (page 109)
• Section 8.2: “Creating and Managing vswitches” (page 110)
• Section 8.3: “Managing vNICs” (page 115)
• Section 8.4: “Configuring VLANs” (page 116)
• Section 8.5: “Troubleshooting Network Problems” (page 120)
8.1 Introduction to Virtual Network Configuration
The guest virtual network configuration provides flexibility in network configuration, allowing
you to provide high availability, performance, and security to the guests running on the VM
Host. The basic virtual network configuration is illustrated in Figure 8-1.
Figure 8-1 Virtual Network Configuration
VM Host
Localnet Vswitch1 Vswitch2
Intranet
Guest 1
VNIC 1 VNIC 2
Guest 2
VNIC 1 VNIC 2
Guest 3
VNIC 1 VNIC 2
PNIC 1PNIC 2
The virtual network configuration consists of the following components:
• VM Host physical network interface card (pNIC) — the physical network adapter, which
may be configured with Auto Port Aggregation (APA). (For more information about APA,
see the HP Auto Port Aggregation (APA) Support Guide.)
8.1 Introduction to Virtual Network Configuration 109