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Difficulty: MediumVirtualization Fundamentals

A network administrator is inspecting intra-host traffic flows within a Type 1 hypervisor environment. Two virtual machines, VM-A and VM-B, reside on the same physical host and are attached to the same VLAN configured on a virtual switch (vSwitch). When VM-A transmits Ethernet frames destined for VM-B, how does the hypervisor handle the frame forwarding?

  1. The vSwitch performs Layer 2 forwarding entirely in software within host memory, delivering the frames directly to VM-B without sending them out the physical Network Interface Card (pNIC).Answer
  2. B
    The frames must exit through the physical Network Interface Card (pNIC) to an external physical switch so the physical MAC address table can determine the destination port.
  3. C
    The hypervisor forwards the frames to the underlying host operating system protocol stack to route the packets between virtual machine network sockets.
  4. D
    The hypervisor encapsulates the frames using GRE and forwards them through a dedicated physical loopback cable connecting two pNICs on the host.

Answer

The vSwitch performs Layer 2 forwarding entirely in software within host memory, delivering the frames directly to VM-B without sending them out the physical Network Interface Card (pNIC).
When virtual machines reside on the same physical host and are attached to the same VLAN on a vSwitch, the vSwitch performs Layer 2 frame switching entirely within host memory. The frames move directly between virtual ports (vNICs) via hypervisor software, so traffic does not exit out to physical network interface cards (pNICs) or external switches.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the location of the source VM, destination VM, and virtual network configuration.
Both VM-A and VM-B reside on the same physical host and belong to the same VLAN on the internal vSwitch.
Traffic flow destination analysis determines whether physical media must be traversed.
2
Analyze how a virtual switch (vSwitch) operates inside a bare-metal hypervisor.
The vSwitch maintains an internal software MAC address table mapping virtual ports to VM vNIC MAC addresses.
A vSwitch functions like a physical Layer 2 switch, but forwarding occurs via system RAM and bus operations inside the hypervisor.
3
Determine physical network interface card (pNIC) involvement.
Since both virtual interfaces are internal to the host on the same vSwitch and VLAN, frame switching occurs completely within host memory without utilizing uplink pNICs.
Uplink pNICs are only required when traffic is destined for devices outside the physical host.

Key Concept

Virtual switch (vSwitch) intra-host frame forwarding mechanics
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Virtualization Fundamentals

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