Virtual Switching and Virtual Switch (vSwitch)

Virtualization is one of the key lessons of today’s networking. One of the paths of virtualization is Switch Virtualization or Virtual Switch (vSwitch). In this lesson, we will focus on Virtual Switches. We will learn what is a virtual switch, hot does a vSwitch works and more.

What is a Virtual Switch (vSwitch)?

Virtual Switch (vSwitch) is basically a virtual device or a software program which behaves like a physical layer 2 switch. It allows one virtual machine (VM) to communicate with another virtual machine (VM). With this role, virtual machines connect virtual or physical switches each other.

Here, it is important to emphasize something. A virtual switch not only forwards the data between devices, but they intelligently inspect and direct the data packets.

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How Does Virtual Switch (vSwitch) Works?

We use vSwitches like physical switches in networking in many ways. As you know, we connect devices network devices to physical devices over their ports. This is also similar for vSwitches. We connect Virtual Machines to the virtual ports of vSwitches. These virtual ports are virtual network adapters on vSwitches.

A vSwitch works similar to physical switch also for device detection and data forwarding. vSwitch detects devices on the virtual switch ports and forwards data on these ports.

Advantages of vSwitch

We are already using physical switches, why do we need virtual switches? There are several advantages of using virtual switches. These advantages are given below:

• It is easy to deploy and manage virtual switches.
• Network admins can manage all virtual switches from a central place.
• It provides location savings in networking.
• It is easy to roll out a new functionality with vSwitches

As you can see above using this virtualization technology provide extra benefits to networking world like other virtualization technologies.

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gokhankosem

Gokhan Kosem is a Network Engineer, Instructor and the Founder of IPCisco.com with 15+ years of experience in Cisco, Nokia, Huawei, Juniper, Linux, Service Provider Networks, Routing and Switching technologies.

He has worked on the backbone networks of major service providers and network vendors including Nortel, Alcatel-Lucent (Nokia) and has extensive hands-on experience with Cisco, Huawei, Juniper and Nokia networking technologies.

He has trained thousands of networking students worldwide through IPCisco.com, Udemy, books, labs, quizzes, and educational content across multiple social media platforms.

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