VMware | Virtual Standard Switch/ Port group Properties (ESXi 5)

Focus : VMware vSwitch properties

General

No: of ports

• By Default 120
• Max 4088 ports

MTU

• Maximum Transfer Unit
• By default 1500
• Need to set as 9000 to enable Jumbo Frames

Security

Promiscuous Mode

• By default ‘Reject’
• If ‘Accept’, VMs connected could see all network traffic traversing the virtual switch
• Normally used by network snoop servers or IDS/IPS

MAC Address Changes

• Affects the traffic that a VM receives
• By default ‘Accept’
• If ‘Accept’, ESXi accepts requests to change the effective MAC address to other than the initial MAC address
• If ‘Reject’, ESXi doesn’t accept MAC address changes thus protecting it from MAC impersonation

Forged Transmits

• Affects the traffic that a VM sends
• By default ‘Accept’
• If ‘Accept’, ESXi does not compare source and effective MAC addresses
• If ‘Reject’, ESXi will be protected from MAC impersonation

Traffic Shaping

Status

• Set as ‘Enabled’ to enable traffic shaping
• Will shape the outbound network traffic based on the parameters like Avg bandwidth, Peak bandwidth, Burst size

NIC Teaming

• Load balancing
• Based on algorithms like IP hash, Source MAC hash, originating virtual port id etc
• Network failover detection
• Notify Switches
• Failback and its order

The options available for vStandard Switch is also available for a portgroup in that vswitch. But the options available for a port group will be greyed out by default. And also you could see a check box available for all the settings. This is because; by default portgroups inherit the properties of its parent vswitch. But if you prefer a particular portgroup to have a different setting that of its parent switch, you can select that check box and suddenly the greyed out options will become active and you can make the personalised settings for that portgroup.

The vmkernel portgroup will have an additional settings tab to set IP address.