Changes

Just as with physical networks, the VMware virtual networking architecture is comprised of multiple components which can be configured in different ways to achieve a variety of network configurations. A physical network consists of both software (for example a DHCP server) and hardware devices such as network adapters and switches. The key difference between a physical network and a virtual network is that in a virtual network the hardware devices are represented in software within the virtualizaion environment.

The switches available by default are the result of choices made during the initial VMware Server installation and configuration process as described in the [[Installing VMware Server 2.0 on Linux Systems]] and [[Installing VMware Server 2.0 on Windows Systems]] chapters of this book. If, for example, ''vmnet8'' is not listed this is most likely due to the fact that NAT was not selected as a network configuration option during the VMware Server installation.

The purpose of a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server is to provide IP addresses and other configuration to network clients. When a virtual machine is configured to use bridged networking, it can either obtain an IP address from a DHCP server on the external network, or be assigned a network appropriate static IP address by an administrator. Virtual machines on HostOnly or NAT virtual networks need to be dynamically assigned IP addresses but have no means of communicating directly with an external DHCP server. In order to address this requirement, VMware Server provides its own built in DHCP server which is connected to NAT and HostOnly virtual networks via the corresponding ''virtual network switch''. A virtual machine on a HostOnly virtual network would, therefore, communicate via its ''virtual network adapter'' through the ''virtual network switch'' to the internal DHCP server to obtain a suitable IP address for the HostOnly private subnet.