• Article

How to Create a Port Profile for Uplinks in VMM

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager

In Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) in System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or System Center 2012 R2, you can consistently configure identical capabilities for network adapters across multiple hosts by using port profiles and logical switches. Port profiles and logical switches act as containers for the properties or capabilities that you want your network adapters to have. Instead of configuring individual properties or capabilities for each network adapter, you can specify the capabilities in port profiles and logical switches, which you can then apply to the appropriate adapters.

Important

For information about prerequisites and settings for port profiles and logical switches, see Configuring Ports and Switches for VM Networks in VMM.

The recommended sequence for creating port profiles and logical switches is to create the port profiles first. You will need at least one port profile for uplinks before you can create a logical switch.

Use the following procedure to create a port profile for uplinks in VMM in System Center 2012 SP1 or System Center 2012 R2.

  1. Open the Fabric workspace.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Show group, click Fabric Resources.

  3. In the Fabric pane, expand Networking, and then click one of the following:

    • For System Center 2012 SP1: Native Port Profiles

    • For System Center 2012 R2: Port Profiles

  4. On the Home tab, in the Create group, click Create, and then click one of the following:

    • For System Center 2012 SP1: Native Port Profile

    • For System Center 2012 R2: Hyper-V Port Profile

    The wizard for creating port profiles opens.

  5. On the General page, enter a name and optional description for the port profile, and then select Uplink port profile. If you plan to enable teaming in the logical switch that includes this uplink port profile, select options for load balancing and teaming, or use the default options. Note that if you do not enable teaming in the logical switch, these options will have no effect.

    Note

    For more information about the options in the list that follows, see NIC Teaming Overview.

    The options for load balancing and teaming are as follows:

    Load-balancing algorithm: the algorithm that the team uses to distribute network traffic between the network adapters. The following options are available:

    • Hyper-V Port: Distributes network traffic based on the Hyper-V switch port identifier of the source virtual machine. This is the default algorithm.

    • Transport Ports: Uses the source and destination TCP ports and the IP addresses to create a hash and then assigns the packets that have that hash value to one of the available network adapters.

    • IP Addresses: Uses the source and destination IP addresses to create a hash and then assigns the packets that have that hash value to one of the available network adapters.

    • Mac Addresses: Uses the source and destination MAC addresses to create a hash and then assigns the packets that have that hash value to one of the available network adapters.

    • Dynamic (in VMM in System Center 2012 R2 only): Uses the dynamic load balancing that is available in Windows Server® 2012 R2 only.

    • Host default (in VMM in System Center 2012 R2 only): This specifies the Dynamic algorithm for hosts that support it, and the Hyper-V Port algorithm for hosts that do not.

    Teaming mode: the mode of the NIC teaming. The following options are available:

    • Switch Independent: Specifies that a network switch configuration is not needed for the NIC team. Because the network switch is not configured to know about the interface teaming, the team interfaces can be connected to different switches. This is the default mode.

    • LACP: Uses the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) from IEEE 802.1ax (also known as IEEE 802.3ad) to dynamically identify links that are connected between the host and a given switch.

    • Static Teaming: Requires configuration on both the switch and the host to identify which links form the team.

    After you have completed all settings, click Next.

  6. On the Network configuration page, do the following:

    • Select one or more network sites for this uplink port profile to support.

    • If you want to enable network virtualization (which allows you to deploy multiple VM networks on the same physical network), select the appropriate check box:

      • In VMM in System Center 2012 SP1, select Enable Windows Network Virtualization.

      • In VMM in System Center 2012 R2, select Enable Hyper-V Network Virtualization.

      Note

      The setting for enabling network virtualization requires a logical network on which you have selected Allow new VM networks created on this logical network to use network virtualization.

    • After you have completed all settings, click Next.

  7. On the Summary page, review and confirm the settings, and then click Finish.

After you create an uplink port profile, the next step is to add it to a logical switch, which places it in a list of profiles that are available through that logical switch. When you apply the logical switch to a network adapter in a host, the uplink port profile is available in the list of profiles, but it is not applied to that network adapter until you select it from the list. This helps you to create consistency in the configurations of network adapters across multiple hosts, but also enables you to configure each network adapter according to your specific requirements.

See Also

Configuring Ports and Switches for VM Networks in VMM
How to Create a Logical Network in VMM
How to Create a Logical Switch in VMM
Configuring Networking in VMM