Doing IT Virtual

If I have a NIC in the host VM server that is VLAN aware and I trunk a bunch of VLAN's from an L2 switch to that NIC, can I assign different guest VM's onto different VLAN's?

I'm assuming that essentially the VLAN-aware NIC would create a bunch of "fake" network adaptors on the physical VM host (1 per VLAN), and then will virtual server 2005 R2 see each of these as a physical NIC that can be used to connect to 1 or more guest VM's?

Is there any limitation as to the number of NIC's virtual server 2005 R2 can use? (I know guest VM's have a max of 4)

Thanks

Virtual Server does not officially support VLANs.  You might be able to get it to work though.

There is no limit to the number of NICs that Virtual Server can support on the host, other than the number of slots that are available to put expansion cards.  You can get cards with 4 ports so you can get quite a few ports on a machine.

You want to be running the new SP1 version of Virtual Server for the best performance. Combine that with a IntelVT or an AMD-V processor will give even overall better performance.

Hi thanks for your reply.

I understand that virtual server doesn't support VLAN's, however, that would actually be 'hidden' from virtual server because the NIC driver would create a fake/sub interface per vlan.  

Virtual server would just see these interfaces from the driver/OS and think they were 'real' interfaces - how would it know they're really VLAN's?

Please let me know your thoughts, thanks

It depends how the NIC driver works and assigns the VLAN tagging and membership...remember that the VM has a TCP/IP stack separate from the Host.  The packet payload is created inside the VM and the VM Network Services driver works at the frame level and does not modify the payload. It modifies the source and destination addresses and communicates with the bound host miniport driver.

VLAN tagging modifies the original frame by changing the EtherType and adding bytes to the frame.

So it depends on if the VLAN tagging is done at the miniport driver level or not for it to work.

There are multiple ways that the VLAN membership can be determined: Port, MAC, Protocol, and Authentication.....this can also complicate things.

The Architecture chapter of the Virtual Server 2005 R2 Resource Kit explains how the network interface works.

One of my customers is planning to deploy Microsoft Virtual Server. He plans to use it in a VLAN. The scenario proposed is as under :

• It is proposed to run multiple VMs on a physical server with multiple physical interfaces, using Microsoft Virtual Server

• These physical interfaces will be connected to individual VLAN ports on the customer’s managed switch

• We need to map each physical interface to specific VM so that the applications on the VMs will not talk to each other

Please let us know if Step 3 is possible, ie., can we assign a specific physical interface to a virtual machine instance?

Yes, you can implement this configuration and connect a VM virtual network to a specific physical interface. Virtual Server supports up to 4 virtual networks per VM. Specifically, make sure that the physical interfaces in the server have the Virtual Machine Network Services driver bound to them or they will not show up as available adapters in Virtual Server (do this in the physical network adapter TCP/IP properties settings). Also, be aware that Virtual Server itself does not specifically support VLANs.

using virt 2005R2 on XP

I have 2 VM's 2 machine on an internal adapter.

Both hosts have a seccond adapter to the external network

This adapter uses DHCP (at Host Lan), strange is, this works at home (192.168.4.x) where i made those VM's at Work it doesnt get an IP altough there is DHCP too. I tought it sohuld work at work too.

When i do release renew at work it doesnt find a dhcp even after releasing and then renew i get back the old ip from home.

Does virtserver2005 remember it ??

VS automatically generates virtual networks bound to each of the physical network adapters. For the best interest of managing them with scvmm (such as migration from host to host), I'd like to create a common vritual network name on each of my hosts. What's the best practice to setup multiple physical nics (bound to VS) to the same VLAN.

here is a common config in my environment:

nic1 - used by host

nic2,3,4 are all on the same VLAN connected to managed switch.

I can't find a way to assign multiple nics to the same virtual network. What I'm doing is to create one vir net per physcial adapter.  I'd really to create one vir net and bind any number of physical nics to it. Is it possible?

Jasper

Let's clarify some terminology first

Virtual Server allows you to create virtual networks

VLANs are something different and Virtual Server Virtual Networks do not support VLAN tagging.

So to answer your question, no you cannot create a virtual network that is bound to more than one physical NIC.  In Virtual Server you discovered that you can create multiple virtual networks bound to the same physical NIC.  Do not rely on this though, because Hyper-V only allows a single virtual network - physical NIC mapping.

Hyper-V does support VLAN into the VM through the virtual switch. You can trunk a group of VLANs to the port that the physical NIC is connected, create a virtual switch, connect a VM to the virutal switch and then specify any one of those VLANs for that virtual NIC. So that means that a single virtual NIC in a VM can be bound to a single VLAN.

Peter,

Are you moving the physical machine between home and work, or are you moving the VMs (.vhd and .vmcs) between different machines?

If you are moving the physical machine, then  I am not sure what is happening. It is possible that your DHCP at work has restrictions using certain settings on the machines. Only those machines will get a DHCP address.  There are ways to d this with DHCP itself and then there are technologies like Network Access protection (NAP) that are more sophisticated.

If you are moving the VMs, then the mapping in the .vmc file is no longer valid and you jsut need to remap the virtual network for each VM.

in Virutal PC there is a third virtual network "Shared".  in VMWare it is "NAT".  I don't see how to do it in virtual server.  GOAL: have my virtual servers on an internal network, not visible to the other computers on my LAN.  BUT need to have access to the Internet through that LAN.  easy as pie in VMware.  same exact server hardware as my VMWare (just change the system/boot physical harddrive to VServer2005sp1).  one physical NIC.

do you have a  HowTO?  I was able to configure VMs so they could see Host and ping other hosts on LAN, but wouldn't go out the LAN default gateway (Firewall) to Internet.  Host server has no problem with Internet.. and other than not finding the tool to do this config, I am using same IP scheme as the VMware harddrive would use.

Do I need to configure a "virtual switch"?  where do I find its utility?

thanks

Hi Craig,

You can install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter, configure NAT, and Internet Connection Sharing to enable your scenario. I have step-by-step procedures for each of these in Chapter 5 of the Virtual Server 2005 R2 Resource Kit. You can download a PDF of this chapter on this website at doingitvirtual.com/.../39.aspx.

Good luck!

Janique