Elastic Virtual Switch Resources

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An elastic virtual switch is associated with the following main resources: an IP network and a virtual port.

IP Network

An IP network, also known as an IPnet, represents a block of IPv4 or IPv6 addresses with a default router for the block. This block of IPv4 or IPv6 addresses is also known as the subnet. You can associate only one IPnet to an elastic virtual switch. All VMs that connect to the elastic virtual switch through a virtual port are assigned an IP address from the IPnet that is associated with the elastic virtual switch.

You can also manually assign an IP address to a VM by setting the IP address property, ipaddr, for the VPort. This IP address must be within the subnet range of the IPnet. For more information about how to add an IPnet to the elastic virtual switch, see How to Configure an Elastic Virtual Switch.

Virtual Port

A virtual port, also known as a VPort, represents the point of attachment between the VNIC and an elastic virtual switch. When a VNIC connects to a VPort, the VNIC inherits the network configuration parameters that the VPort encapsulates, such as the following:

SLA parameters such as maximum bandwidth, class of service, and priority
MAC address
IP address

When you create a VPort, a randomly generated MAC address and the next available IP address from the associated IPnet are assigned to the VPort. The randomly generated MAC address has a default prefix consisting of a valid IEEE OUI with the local bit set. You can also specify the IP address and the MAC address when you add a VPort by using the evsadm add-vport command. For more information about how to add a VPort, see How to Configure an Elastic Virtual Switch.

Note - You do not always need to add a virtual port to an elastic virtual switch. When a VNIC is created, you can specify only the name of the elastic virtual switch to which the VNIC must connect. In such cases, the EVS controller generates a system virtual port. These virtual ports follow the naming convention sys-vportname, for example, sys-vport0. The system virtual port inherits the elastic virtual switch properties.

The following table shows the VPort properties.

Table 5-1 VPort Properties

VPort Property	Description	Possible Values	Default Value
`cos`	Specifies the 802.1p priority on outbound packets on the VPort.	`0` - `7`	`--`
`maxbw`	Specifies the full-duplex bandwidth for the VPort.	`--`	`--`
`priority`	Specifies the relative priority for the VPort.	`high`, `medium`, or `low`	`medium`
`ipaddr`	Specifies the IP address associated with the virtual port. You can assign the IP address only when you create the VPort.	`--`	If you do not specify the IP address for the VPort, the EVS controller automatically selects an IP address from the IPnet associated with the elastic virtual switch.
`macaddr`	Specifies the MAC address associated with the VPort. You can assign the MAC address only when you create the VPort.	`--`	If you do not specify the MAC address for the VPort, the EVS controller generates a random MAC address for the VPort.
`evs`	A read-only property that represents the elastic virtual switch with which the VPort is associated.	`--`	`--`
`tenant`	A read-only property that represents the tenant with which the VPort is associated.	`--`	`--`

You cannot modify the properties evs and tenant because they are read-only properties. For more information about the VPort properties, see the evsadm(1M) man page.