Virtual Switches

By providing layer-2 connectivity, a Virtual Switch connects Virtual Systems and facilitates sharing a common physical interface without segmenting the existing IP network. As with a physical switch, each Virtual Switch maintains a forwarding table with a list of MAC addresses and their associated ports.

In contrast to a Virtual Router, when sharing a physical interface via a Virtual Switch there is no need:

• To allocate an additional subnet for IP addresses of Virtual Systems connected to the switch.
• To manually configure the routing on the routers adjacent to the shared interface.

You can create multiple Virtual Switches in a virtual network topology.

Note - When sharing a physical interface via a Virtual Switch, the IP addresses for Virtual Systems connected to a Virtual Switch should be allocated from the same subnet as the shared interface. If the only function the Virtual Switch performs is to connect Virtual Systems, then the Virtual Switch can be defined without interfaces (unless Virtual System Load Sharing is enabled).