Configuring vSphere Standard Switches.

Question 1

vSphere Standard Switch (vSS) Capabilities

Answer 1

You can create two main types of connections on vSSs: VMkernel ports and VM port groups.

VMkernel ports are used to connect the VMkernel to external services that it controls. They should not be confused with VMkernel itself, which is the embedded hypervisor that is part of the ESXi software on the host. There is only one VMkernel on an ESXi host, but there can be many VMkernel ports.

Question 2

The six main types of VMkernel communication from a vSS that require the use of a VMkernel port are as follows:

Answer 2

1. IP storage: iSCSI or networked-attached storage (NAS).
2. vMotion: A VMkernel port is required and a separate network is highly recommended.
3. Management: Because ESXi does not have a service console or service console ports, management is performed through a specially configured VMkernel port. This includes provisioning traffic settings as well.
4. Fault-tolerant logging: A feature in vSphere that allows a high degree of hardware fault tolerance for the VMs involved, but also requires a separate and distinct VMkernel port.
5. VSAN: Virtual storage-area network (VSAN) is a new type of storage that is available only on vSphere 5.5 and later. It leverages the capacity of the local drives to create a flexible storage area.
6. vSphere Replication: vSphere Replication is a service that is included with most license levels of vSphere (Essentials Plus and higher) that provides a second copy of a VM at an alternate location for the purpose of disaster recovery.

Question 3

Port Group

Answer 3

Used only to connect VMs to the virtual switches. These ports are primarily a Layer 2 connection that does not require any configuration other than a label to identify a port group, such as Production.

A VLAN can be configured on a port group, but that is optional. You can have multiple VM port groups on a single switch and use them to establish different polices, such as security, outbound traffic shaping, and NIC teaming for various types of VMs.

The main reason to use port groups is to get more than one function out of each switch. This is possible because port group configuration supersedes switch configuration.

Because of this, you can have policies for security, traffic shaping, NIC teaming, and so on that apply to the switch, but you can also have a separate policy for each that applies to any port group on which the settings differ from those of the switch. This tremendously improves your flexibility and gives you additional security options. In this section, you learn about adding, editing, and removing port groups on a vSS.

Question 4

Determining Use Cases for a vSphere Standard Switch.

Answer 4

One practical reason might be that you do not have the appropriate license to use a vDS.

Another reason might be that you have a small- to medium-size organization, and therefore, the settings on a vSS are sufficient for your needs.