Learning VMware vSphere

The VMkernel network interface (vmk)

Much like the virtual machines that run on the ESXi hosts, the vmkernel would also need to interface with the network for a variety of purposes. These interfaces act as network node points for the vmkernel. The very first vmkernel interface - vmk0 is created during the installation of ESXi. This interface is the management interface for the ESXi host. VMware allows creating a maximum of 256 (vmk0 - vmk255) vmkernel interfaces on an ESXi host. The use cases include interfaces for management traffic, VMotion traffic, FT traffic, Virtual SAN traffic, iSCSI, and NAS interfaces. Since each interface is a network node point, it will need an IP configuration and a MAC address. The first vmkernel interface (vmk0) will ...