For more information about the VMware Management Interface, go to www.vmware.com/support/esx2/doc/.


 

Configuring a Virtual Machine's Networking Settings
Configuring a Virtual Machine's Networking Settings

The Network page shows network performance information and resources allocated to the virtual machine's virtual network card. The receive and transmit bandwidths indicate how fast data is transferred to and from the virtual machine.

The values under Performance are based on the past five minutes. The period of time these statistics cover can be modified. See Configuring the Statistics Period for the VMware Management Interface.

The Network page also indicates whether traffic shaping is enabled. This setting can be changed.

Activities you can perform when configuring a virtual machine's networking information include:

Click the tabs at the top of the page to view more information about the virtual machine.

Enabling Traffic Shaping
Enabling Traffic Shaping

When network traffic shaping is enabled, outbound network bandwidth is limited according to the values specified here. Because network traffic is bursty, separate parameters are provided to control both the long-term sustainable Average transmit rate and the short-term Peak transmit rate. The Burst parameter controls the amount of data that may be sent in one burst while exceeding the Average rate. The Peak rate limits the maximum bandwidth during such bursts.

To enable network traffic shaping, complete the following steps.

  1. In the Network page, click Edit. The Network Resource Settings page appears.
  2. To enable traffic shaping, check Enable Traffic Shaping, then define network traffic parameters.
  3. Specify the average bandwidth. In the Average Bandwidth field, specify the average value for network bandwidth, then specify whether that amount is in Megabits per second (Mbps), Kilobits per second (Kbps) or bits per second (bps).
  4. Specify the peak bandwidth. In the Peak Bandwidth field, specify the peak value for network bandwidth, then specify whether that amount is in Megabits per second (Mbps), Kilobits per second (Kbps) or bits per second (bps).
  5. Specify the burst size. In the Burst Size field, specify how large a burst can be, then specify whether that amount is in Megabytes (M), Kilobytes (K) or bytes (B).
  6. Click OK to save your changes and close the window.

For more information about managing network resources, see www.vmware.com/ support/esx2/doc/esx20admin_res-network-intro.html.