A virtual network (vnet) device is a virtual device that is defined in a domain connected to a virtual switch. A virtual network device is managed by the virtual network driver, and it is connected to a virtual network through the hypervisor using logical domain channels (LDCs).
A virtual network device can be used as a network interface with the name vnetn, which can be used like any regular network interface and configured with the ifconfig(1M) command.
Following is a explanation for the example in Figure 7–1.
The virtual switch in the service domain is connected to the guest domains. This allows guest domains to communicate with each other.
The virtual switch also is connected to the physical network interface e1000g0. This allows guest domains to communicate with the physical network.
The virtual switch network interface vsw0 is plumbed in the service domain, so this allows the two guest domains to communicate with the service domain.
The virtual switch network interface vsw0 in the service domain can be configured using the ifconfig(1M) command.
The virtual network interfaces vnet0 in the guest domains can be configured using the ifconfig(1M) command.
Basically the virtual switch behaves like a regular physical network switch and switches network packets between the different systems, such as guest domains, service domain, and physical network, to which it is connected.