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Difficulty: MediumVirtualization Fundamentals

An enterprise network administrator is configuring network isolation for virtual machines hosted on a single bare-metal server. The requirement states that traffic from different virtual machine groups must be segregated into distinct 802.1Q VLANs before traversing the server's shared physical uplink. Which component within the virtualization architecture is primarily responsible for performing Layer 2 frame switching between virtual machines and applying the required VLAN tags?

  1. The virtual switch (vSwitch) operating within the hypervisorAnswer
  2. B
    The virtual network interface card (vNIC) assigned to the guest operating system
  3. C
    The physical network interface card (pNIC) hardware ASIC controller
  4. D
    The underlying host operating system protocol driver stack

Answer

The virtual switch (vSwitch) operating within the hypervisor is responsible for Layer 2 switching and 802.1Q VLAN tagging for hosted virtual machines.
The virtual switch (vSwitch) is a software program running inside the hypervisor that functions as a Layer 2 switch. It maintains MAC tables, performs local frame forwarding between VMs on the same physical host, and tags/untags 802.1Q Ethernet frames for traffic leaving via physical uplinks.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the component that connects virtual machine virtual interfaces (vNICs) to host physical interfaces (pNICs).
The hypervisor implements a software-based Layer 2 virtual switch (vSwitch).
Virtual machines require network connectivity both locally within the host and externally.
2
Analyze which component handles Layer 2 encapsulation and forwarding features such as VLAN tagging.
The vSwitch manages port groups, maintains a virtual MAC address table, and inserts/strips 802.1Q tags on traffic.
This offloads network control logic from the individual guest operating systems while isolating VM traffic before reaching physical switches.

Key Concept

Virtual Switch (vSwitch) Operation and Functions
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Topics

Virtualization Fundamentals

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