VLAN Configuration on Virtual Switch, Physical Switch, and Virtual Machines - ESX 3.x

• External Switch Tagging (EST)
• Virtual Switch Tagging (VST)
• Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT)

External Switch Tagging

• All VLAN tagging of packets is performed on the physical switch.
• ESX host network adapters are connected to access ports on the physical switch.
• The portroups connected to the virtual switch must have their VLAN ID set to 0.
• For more information, see Sample configuration - ESX connecting to physical switch via VLAN access mode and external switch VLAN tagging (EST Mode) (1004127).
• See the following example snippet of code from a Cisco switch port configuration:
  
  switchport mode access
  
  switchport access vlan x

Virtual Switch Tagging

• All VLAN tagging of packets is performed by the virtual switch, before leaving the ESX host.
• The ESX host network adapters must be connected to trunk ports on the physical switch.
• The portgroups connected to the virtual switch must have an appropriate VLAN ID specified.
• For more information, see  Configuring a VLAN on a portgroup (1003825) .
• For sample of VST, see Sample configuration of virtual switch VLAN tagging (VST Mode) (1004074).
• See the following example snippet of code from a Cisco switch port configuration:
  
  switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
  switchport mode trunk
  switchport trunk allowed vlan x,y,z
  spanning-tree portfast trunk

Virtual Guest Tagging

• All VLAN tagging is performed by the virtual machine.
• You must install an 802.1Q VLAN trunking driver inside the virtual machine,
• VLAN tags are preserved between the virtual machine networking stack and external switch when frames are passed to/from virtual switches.
• Physical switch ports are set to trunk port.
• For more information, see Sample configuration of virtual machine VLAN tagging (VGT Mode) (1004252).
• See the following example snippet of code from a Cisco switch port configuration:
  
  switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
  switchport mode trunk
  switchport trunk allowed vlan x,y,z
  spanning-tree portfast trunk