Creating a Virtual Network

Virtual Networks serve as binding interfaces between the virtual network adapters inside virtual machines and Containers and the physical, VLAN, and virtual network adapters on the Parallels server. Using Virtual Networks, you can connect your virtual machines and Containers to different networks.

By default, Parallels Server Bare Metal creates the following Virtual Networks:

• Bridged . This Virtual Network is connected to one of the physical adapters on the Parallels server (as a rule, eth0 ) and provides virtual machines and Containers included in this Virtual Network with access to the network behind this physical adapter.
• Shared . This Virtual Network is connected to the vnic0 virtual adapter on the Parallels server and allows virtual machines and Containers included in this Virtual Network to use the current network connections of your Parallels server.
• Host-only . This Virtual Network is connected to the vnic1 virtual adapter on the Parallels server and allows a virtual machine and Container included in this Virtual Network to access only the Parallels server and the other virtual machines and Containers on this network.

You can also create your own Virtual Networks using the prlsrvctl or vznetcfg utility. For example, to make a new Virtual Network with the name of vznetwork1 , you can issue one of the following commands:

# vznetcfg net new vznetwork1

or

# prlsrvctl net add vznetwork1

By default, both commands create host-only Virtual Networks. However, you can change their types using the prlsrvctl utility (see Configuring Virtual Network Parameters for details).

In the current version of Parallels Server Bare Metal, you can create

• 1 shared Virtual Network (it is automatically created on the Parallels server during the Parallels Server Bare Metal installation).
• 5 host-only Virtual Networks (1 host-only Virtual Network is automatically created on the Parallels server during the Parallels Server Bare Metal installation).
• One or more bridged Virtual Networks. The number Virtual Networks depends on the number of physical and VLAN adapters available on the Parallels server. One Virtual Network can be connected to only one physical or VLAN adapter.

Viewing Bridges

Each Virtual Network is associated with some bridge which is automatically made on the Parallels server during the Virtual Network creation and serves as the basis for the Virtual Network functioning. To find out what bridge is associated with what Virtual Network, you can run the following command:

# vznetcfg if list

Name Type Network ID Addresses

eth0 nic Bridged 10.30.18.41/16,dhcp

br3 bridge vznetwork1

br2 bridge Bridged

br1 bridge Host-Only

br0 bridge Shared

vnic1 vnic Host-Only 10.37.131.2/24

vnic0 vnic Shared 10.37.130.2/24

vnic2 vnic vznetwork1 10.37.132.2/24

The bridges existing on the Parallels server are listed in the Name column and can be easily identified by the br prefix. For example, you can see that the br3 bridge is currently associated with the vznetwork1 Virtual Network.