VMware 网卡的几种类型

小木木

　　今天在做VMware 添加主机时设置网卡是仔细研究了一下虚拟网卡的类型，参照官方文档总结如下：
　　For more information on network types, see Understanding networking types  in hosted products (1006480).
在VMware中创建Windows时有以下几种网卡：
　　可以在虚拟机的 .vmx文件中添加更改：
　　Ethernet[x].virtualDev = "vmxnet"
　　Vlance: (AMD PCNet Driver) This is an emulated version of the AMD 79C970  PCnet32- LANCE NIC, and it is an older 10 Mbps NIC with drivers available in  most 32-bit guest operating systems except Windows Vista and later. A virtual  machine configured with this network adapter can use its network  immediately.

• VMXNET: The VMXNET virtual network adapter has no physical  counterpart. VMXNET is optimized for performance in a virtual machine. Because  operating system vendors do not provide built-in drivers for this card, you must  install VMware Tools to have a driver for the VMXNET network adapter  available.
  
• Flexible: The Flexible network adapter identifies itself as  a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but initializes itself and  functions as either a Vlance or a VMXNET adapter, depending on which driver  initializes it. With VMware Tools installed, the VMXNET driver changes the  Vlance adapter to the higher performance VMXNET adapter.
  
• E1000: An emulated version of the Intel 82545EM Gigabit  Ethernet NIC. A driver for this NIC is not included with all guest operating  systems. Typically Linux versions 2.4.19 and later, Windows XP Professional x64  Edition and later, and Windows Server 2003 (32-bit) and later include the E1000  driver.
  
  Note: E1000 does not support jumbo frames prior  to ESXi/ESX 4.1.
  
• E1000e: This feature emulates a newer model of Intel  Gigabit NIC (number 82574) in the virtual hardware. This is known as the  "e1000e" vNIC. e1000e is available only on hardware version 8 (and newer)  virtual machines in vSphere 5. It is the default vNIC for Windows 8 and newer  (Windows) guest operating systems. For Linux guests, e1000e is not available  from the UI (e1000, flexible vmxnet, enhanced vmxnet, and vmxnet3 are available  for Linux).
  
• VMXNET 2 (Enhanced): The VMXNET 2 adapter is based on the  VMXNET adapter but provides some high-performance features commonly used on  modern networks, such as jumbo frames and hardware offloads. This virtual  network adapter is available only for some guest operating systems on ESXi/ESX  3.5 and later.
  
  VMXNET 2 is supported only for a limited set of guest  operating systems:
  
  
  
  • 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 2003 (Enterprise, Datacenter,  and Standard Editions).
    
    Note: You can use enhanced  VMXNET adapters with other versions of the Microsoft Windows 2003 operating  system, but a workaround is required to enable the option in the VMware  Infrastructure (VI) Client or vSphere Client. If Enhanced VMXNET is not offered  as an option, see Enabling enhanced vmxnet  adapters for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (1007195).
    
  • 32-bit version of Microsoft Windows XP Professional
    
  • 32- and 64-bit versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0
    
  • 32- and 64-bit versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
    
  • 64-bit versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0
    
  • 64-bit versions of Ubuntu Linux
    
  In ESX 3.5 Update 4 or  higher, these guest operating systems are also supported:
  
  
  
  
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit)
    
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (64-bit)
    
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
    
  • Microsoft Windows Small Business Server  2003
    
  
  Note: Jumbo frames are not supported in the  Solaris Guest OS for VMXNET 2.
  
  
• VMXNET 3: The VMXNET 3 adapter is the next generation of a  paravirtualized NIC designed for performance, and is not related to VMXNET or  VMXNET 2. It offers all the features available in VMXNET 2, and adds several new  features like multiqueue support (also known as Receive Side Scaling in  Windows), IPv6 offloads, and MSI/MSI-X interrupt delivery.
  
  VMXNET 3 is  supported only for virtual machines version 7 and later, with a limited set of  guest operating systems:
  
  
  
  • 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 7, XP, 2003, 2003 R2, 2008,  2008 R2, and Server 2012
    
  • 32- and 64-bit versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 and later
    
  • 32- and 64-bit versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and later
    
  • 32- and 64-bit versions of Asianux 3 and later
    
  • 32- and 64-bit versions of Debian 4
    
  • 32- and 64-bit versions of Ubuntu 7.04 and later
    
  • 32- and 64-bit versions of Sun Solaris 10 U4 and  later
    
  
  Notes:
  
  
  
  • In ESXi/ESX 4.1 and earlier releases, jumbo frames are not supported in the  Solaris Guest OS for VMXNET 2 and VMXNET 3. The feature is supported starting  with ESXi 5.0 for VMXNET 3 only.
    
    For more information, see Enabling Jumbo Frames on the  Solaris guest operating system (2012445).
    
  • Fault Tolerance is not supported on a virtual machine configured with a  VMXNET 3 vNIC in vSphere 4.0, but is fully supported on vSphere 4.1.
    
  • Windows Server 2012 is supported with VMXNET 3 on ESXi 5.0 Update 1 or  higher.
    
  
  

Adapter Caveats

• Migrating virtual machines that use enhanced  VMXNET
  
  VMXNET 2 was introduced with ESX 3.5. Virtual machines  configured to have VMXNET 2 adapters cannot migrate to earlier ESX hosts, even  though virtual machines can usually migrate freely between ESX 3.0 and ESX  3.0.x.
  
  If you must migrate a virtual machine between later and earlier  hosts, do not choose VMXNET 2.
  
• Upgrading from ESX 2.x to ESX 3.x
  
  When a virtual  hardware upgrade operation transforms a virtual machine created on an ESX 2.x  host to an ESX 3.x host, Vlance adapters are automatically upgraded to Flexible.  In contrast, VMXNET adapters are not upgraded automatically because most Linux  guest operating system versions do not reliably preserve network settings when a  network adapter is replaced. Since the guest operating system thinks a Flexible  adapter is still Vlance, it retains the settings in that case. If the upgrade  replace a VMXNET adapter with a Flexible adapter, the guest operating system  erroneously discards the settings.
  
  After the virtual hardware upgrade,  the network adapter is still VMXNET, without the fall back compatibility of the  Flexible adapter. Just as on the original earlier host, if VMware Tools is  uninstalled on the virtual machine, it cannot access its network  adapters.
  
• Adding virtual disks
  
  Adding an existing earlier (ESX  2.x) virtual disk to an ESX 3.x virtual machine results in a de facto downgrade  of that virtual machine to ESX 2.x. If you are using ESX 3.x features, such as  enhanced VMXNET or Flexible network adapters, the virtual machine becomes  inconsistent. When you add an existing ESX 2.x virtual disk to an ESX 3.x  machine, immediately use the Upgrade Virtual Hardware command to  restore the virtual machine to the ESX 3 version. This problem does not arise  when you add earlier virtual disks to an ESXi/ESX 4.0 virtual  machine.
  
  Note: Executing the Upgrade Virtual  Hardware command changes the ESX 2 virtual disk so that it is no longer  usable on an ESX 2 virtual machine. Consider making a copy of the disk before  you upgrade one of the two copies to ESX 3 format.