VMkernel Network
Interfaces
The network services that the VMkernel
provides (iSCSI, NFS, and VMotion) use a TCP/IP stack in the VMkernel. This
stack accesses various networks by attaching to one or more port groups on one
or more virtual switches.
The VMware VMkernel TCP/IP networking stack
handles iSCSI, NFS, and VMotion in the following ways.
- iSCSI as a virtual machine datastore
- iSCSI for the direct mounting of ISO files, which are presented as CD-ROMs to virtual machines
- NFS as a virtual machine datastore
- NFS for the direct mounting of ISO files, which are presented as CD-ROMs to virtual machines
- Migration with VMotion
If you have two or more physical NICs for iSCSI,
you can create multiple paths for the software iSCSI by using port binding. For
more information on port binding, see the
iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide
.
A freshly installed ESX/ESXi system does not
include VMkernel network interfaces. When you wish to migrate a virtual machine
with VMotion, your VMkernel networking stack must be set up properly. When you
want to use storage types that use TCP/IP network communications, such as
iSCSI, you must provide a separate VMkernel network interface for that storage
device. You must create any VMkernel ports you might need (see
Adding a VMkernel Network Interface).