Configuring Virtual Guest VLAN tagging (VGT) mode on a vNetwork Distributed Switch

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article describes the concept and configuration of Virtual Guest VLAN tagging (VGT) mode on ESX 4.x.

Environment

VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable

Resolution

Note: For additional information on dvPortGroup configuration, see vNetwork Distributed PortGroup (dvPortGroup) configuration (1010593).

This is a new Virtual Network Adapter, also known as Advanced VMXNET. It is based on Enhanced VMXNET introduced in ESX 3.5, it provides these new features:

• IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging
• No more need for e1000 Driver inside of a virtual machine
• VLAN tagging and tag removal offloading
• Only one VLAN per NIC for Windows
• TCP Segmentation Offloading for IPv4 and IPv6
• TCP and UPD Checksum Offloading for IPv4 and IPv6
• MSI (Messaged Signalled Interrupt) and MSI-X support (subject to guest kernel support)
• Receive Side Scaling (supported in Windows Vista, 2008 and any other system using NDIS 6.x)
• VMXNET 3 is the new “state of the art” Virtual Network Adapter.

To modify and add vNetwork Distributed Port Groups (dvPortGroup):

1. In vCenter, click Home > Inventory > Networking.
2. Right-click on dvPortGroup and choose Edit Settings.
3. Under dvPortGroup > Policies > VLAN, these settings can be specifed:
   
   • VGT – VLAN Guest Tagging
   • VLAN Trunking – Physical equivalent to: VLAN in Trunk/Tagged mode
   • Standard vSwitch equivalent to: VLAN ID set to 4095
     
     Note: Distributed Switch Only specifies the range of VLANs to trunk, to improve security.
     

Additional Information

For ESX 3.5 VGT configuration, see Sample configuration of virtual machine VLAN Tagging (VGT Mode) in ESX (1004252).