Changes

Before creating virtual machines with within the Hyper-V environment , it is worth first gaining an understanding of both the Hyper-V networking architecture and networking options which are available to guest operating systems running within virtual machines. The purpose of this chapter, therefore, is to provide a high level overview of Hyper-V networking and to cover the steps involved in configuring Hyper-V virtual networks.

As previously outlined in the chapter entitled [[An Overview of the Hyper-V Architecture]], it was explained that Hyper-V consists of a parent partition and multiple child partitions. These partitions are essentially virtual machines. Running in the parent partition is an instance of Windows Server 2008 which provides services to the child partitions which , in turn, contain the guest operating systems. The services provided by the parent partition include networking for the guest virtual machines. A high level view of this architecture is illustrated in the following figure:

Hyper-V provides the ability to create multiple virtual networks which may be used for use by virtual machines. The types of virtual networks supported by Hyper-V fall into three distinct categories, details of which are provided in the following table:

Note that there is a one to one correspondence between external virtual networks and physical networks adapters. It is not, therefore, possible to bind more than one external virtual network to a physical network adapter. if If multiple external virtual networks are required, a physical network adapter must be installed in the host system for each one. If the Hyper-V server is to be administered remotely, it is also necessary to dedicate a separate physical network adapter for this purpose.

Hyper-V virtual networks are created and managed using the ''Virtual Network Manager''. To access this tool, begin by launching the Hyper-V Manager (''Start->Administrative Tools->Hyper-V Manager''). Unless the Hyper-V Manager is already connected to the required Hyper-V Server, connect to the appropriate server in the left hand panel by right clicking on ''Hyper-V Manager'' in the left hand panel and selecting ''Connect to Server...''. Once connected, click on the ''Virtual Network Manager...'' link in the ''Actions'' panel. Once loaded, the manager dialog will appear as follows: