The host level includes physical network adapters (pNICs) and network adapter teams (NIC teams). This level is only present in External vSwitches.
An External vSwitch has an "uplink" to the physical network that connects virtual machines to the LAN outside the host server. This uplink is built by either one distinct physical network adapter or by one team of physical network adapters.
The host level is not managed by Hyper-V. It is part of the underlying host server and it is managed by the Management OS.
| The Hyper-V level includes virtual switches (vSwitch). This is the core level of Hyper-V networking.
A vSwitch connects virtual machines to the virtual Hyper-V network so they can communicate with other systems. Hyper-V vSwitches are Layer-2 switches that provide basic connectivity. A vSwitch may be extended by software modules to gain additional functionality.
There are three types of vSwitches in Hyper-V:
- External vSwitch: This vSwitch has a connection to the physical network. Thus it can connect VMs to the LAN outside the host server.
- Internal vSwitch: This vSwitch has no connection to the physical network. VMs that are connected to an Internal vSwitch can only communicate with other VMs on the same host server and with the host's Management OS.
- Private vSwitch: This vSwitch has no connection to the physical network either. In addition, the host's Management OS cannot access a Private vSwitch. VMs that are connected to a Private vSwitch can only communicate with other VMs that are connected to the same vSwitch on the same host.
| The VM level includes all virtual network adapters of all VMs that are running on the host server. Additionally it includes the virtual network adapters of the host's Management OS.
This is the level where individual network functionality may be configured, such as VLANs for individual VM network adapters or bandwidth limitations.
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