Add a network

September 26, 2024

Contributed by:

To create a new network in a pool or on a standalone server, use the New Network wizard: select the server or pool in the Resources pane, select the Networking tab and then click Add Network.

To add an external network

An external network has an association with a physical NIC and provides a bridge between virtual machines and your external network. This bridge enables VMs to connect to external resources through the NIC.

Open the New Network wizard.

On the first page of the wizard, select External Network and then click Next.

Enter the name and an optional description for the new network, and then click Next.

On the Network settings page, configure the NIC, VLAN, and MTU settings for the new network:

From the NIC list, choose a physical NIC.
In the VLAN box, assign a number to the new virtual network.
To use jumbo frames, set the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) to a value between 1500–9216.
To create a VLAN on an SR-IOV network, choose the NIC on which SR-IOV is enabled (Step 4a). Check the Create the VLAN on the SR-IOV network check box.

Select the Automatically add this network to new virtual machines check box to have the new network added to any new VMs created using the New VM wizard.

Click Finish to create the new network and close the wizard.

To add a single-server private network

A single-server private network is an internal network that has no association with a physical network interface. It provides connectivity only between the VMs on a given server. This network has no connection to VMs on other servers in the pool or to the outside world.

Open the New Network wizard.

On the first page of the wizard, select Single-Server Private Network and then click Next.

Enter a name and an optional description for the new network, and then click Next.

On the Network settings page, select the Automatically add this network to new virtual machines check box. This selection ensures that the new network is added to any new VMs created using the New VM wizard.

Click Finish to create the new network and close the wizard.

To add a new bonded network

This type of network bonds two or more NICs together to create a single, high-performing channel that provides connectivity between VMs and your external network.

Note:

Whenever possible, create NIC bonds when you initially create your resource pool and before joining more servers to the pool or creating VMs. The bond configuration is automatically replicated to servers as they joined the pool. This action reduces the number of steps required.

Open the New Network wizard.

On the first page of the wizard, select Bonded Network and then click Next.

On the Bond Members page, select the NICs you want to bond together. To select a NIC, select its check box in the list. Up to four NICs can be selected in this list. Clear the check box to deselect a NIC.

Under Bond mode, choose the type of bond:

Select Active-active to configure an active-active bond. With this bond, traffic is balanced between the bonded NICs. If one NIC within the bond fails, the server’s network traffic automatically routes over the second NIC.
Select Active-passive to configure an active-passive bond, where traffic passes over only one of the bonded NICs. In this mode, the second NIC only becomes active if the active NIC fails, for example, if it loses network connectivity.
Select LACP with load balancing based on source MAC address to configure a LACP bond. With this bond, the outgoing NIC is selected based on the MAC address of the VM from which the traffic originated. Use this option to balance traffic in an environment where you have several VMs on the same host. This option is not suitable if there are fewer virtual interfaces (VIFs) than NICs: as load balancing is not optimal because the traffic cannot be split across NICs.
Select LACP with load balancing based on IP and port of source and destination to configure a LACP bond. This bond uses the source IP address, source port number, destination IP address, and destination port number to allocate the traffic across the NICs. Use this option to balance traffic from VMs in an environment where the number of NICs exceeds the number of VIFs.

Notes:

To be able to view the LACP bonding options in XenCenter and to create a LACP bond, configure vSwitch as the network stack. Also, your switches must support the IEEE 802.3ad standard.

Active-active and active-passive bond types are available for both the vSwitch and Linux bridge.

You can bond either two, three, or four NICs when vSwitch is the network stack. However, you can only bond two NICs when the Linux bridge is the network stack.

To use jumbo frames, set the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) to a value between 1500–9216.

Select the Automatically add this network to new virtual machines check box to have the new network added to any new VMs created using the New VM wizard.

Click Finish to create the new network and close the wizard.

For more information, see Configuring NICs.

To add an SR-IOV Network

Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) is a PCI device virtualization technology that allows a single PCI device to appear as multiple PCI devices on the physical PCI bus. The physical device is known as a Physical Function (PF). The others are known as Virtual Functions (VF). SR-IOV enables the hypervisor to directly assign one or more of these VFs to a Virtual Machine (VM) using SR-IOV technology. The guest can then use the VF as any other directly assigned PCI device.

Open the New Network wizard.

On the first page of the wizard, choose SR-IOV Network and then click Next.

Enter a name and an optional description for the new network, and then click Next.

Choose a NIC from the list. NIC0 is not available in the list.

On the Network settings page, select the Automatically add this network to new virtual machines check box to have the new network added to any new VMs created using the New VM wizard.

Click Finish.

Creating an SR-IOV network affects network connection status. XenCenter connections to the pool can be temporarily disturbed.

Click Create SR-IOV anyway to create the network and close the wizard. The network created appears in the NICs tab indicating the number of VFs remaining or if it is disabled.

Add a network

To add an external network

To add a single-server private network

To add a new bonded network

To add an SR-IOV Network

XenServer 8

Citrix Hypervisor 8.2 Cumulative Update 1

In this article

Add a network

To add an external network

To add a single-server private network

To add a new bonded network

To add an SR-IOV Network

Related documentation

XenServer 8

Citrix Hypervisor 8.2 Cumulative Update 1

In this article