Advantages of using virtual Ethernet
Virtual Ethernet provides efficient communication between logical partitions, and benefits for establishing an economical network. You can take advantage of virtual Ethernet on the IBM® i operating system.
Virtual Ethernet enables you to establish high-speed communication between logical partitions without purchasing additional hardware. For each of the ports enabled, the system creates a virtual Ethernet communications port, such as CMNxx with a resource type of 268C. Logical partitions assigned to the same local area network (LAN) then become available to communicate through that link. Virtual Ethernet provides the same function as using a physical Ethernet adapter.
Virtual Ethernet is an economical networking solution that provides
substantial benefits:
- Economical: Potentially no extra networking hardware is required. You can add partitions to the system and communicate with an external LAN without installing extra physical LAN cards. If the current system has limited available card slots in which to install additional LAN cards, then using the virtual Ethernet offers the capability to operate LAN-attached partitions without the requirement to upgrade the system.
- Flexible: It is possible to configure distinctive connections enabling the configuration of selective communication paths between partitions. For added flexibility, the configuration model allows logical partitions to implement both a virtual Ethernet and physical LAN connection.
- Fast: The virtual Ethernet emulates a physical Ethernet connection and provides a fast and convenient communication method between partitions. This enhances the opportunity to integrate separate applications that run on different logical partitions.
- Versatile: Regardless of whether your partitions are running on IBM i, AIX®, or Linux®, they can all be connected to the same virtual Ethernet.
- Reduced congestion: By using the virtual Ethernet for interpartition communication, communication traffic is reduced on the external LAN.