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I've got a Windows 11 PC running several Hyper-V VMs. There are multiple NICs on the PC, one of which is connected to the router, and I would like to have another NIC to provide a wired connection to my LAN for my other devices, i. e., I would like to turn my PC into an Ethernet switch.
I don't want an extra layer of NAT, so ICS is not an option. Here are my attempts:
I believe this could be achieved with vSwitches, as it is competely feasible on Linux, but I'm stuck. Your help is appreciated.
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A pfsense virtual router may be another option. Also note; that many consumer-grade network adapters do a poor job of hosting an external virtual switch so expect some slowness with whatever you end up doing.
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Just checking if there's any progress or updates?
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Sorry for being so late to reply. I was preparing for an exam, after which I completely forgot about this.
I eventually gave up and set up an additional VM just to do networking, and everything worked just fine.
Well, maybe this is supposed to be done only in Windows Server. But still, thank you for helping.
Glad to hear, you're welcome.
You can simply add a new external vSwitch. When you create a new external vSwitch the internet protocols are removed from the adapter and the Hyper-V Extensible Switch protocol is added turning that physical port into a multi-port virtual switch.
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Sorry for my unclearness. I would like the two physical NICs to behave as if they were connected to the same switch. Using two vSwitches for the two NICs produced two separate networks.
Not a problem, create two external vSwitches, and connect them to any network as needed.
Using two vSwitches for the two NICs produced two separate networks.
Not sure how you got that. Doesn't work that way here for me.
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If I understand you right, you are suggesting that all external NICs on the same computer are actually connected together?
No, they're not, but if you plugged them into the switch ports on network then they would be,
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So there's some misunderstanding. The diagram I uploaded just now might better explain. My problem is that, I don't have a hardware switch available, so I'm trying to make my PC behave like a physical switch.
(Because the router and the modem are in a room far away.)
Ok, well that has nothing much really to do with hyper-v. As to windows as a router to can create a new separate virtual machine for that purpose.
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000118763/configuring-windows-server-2012-r2-as-a-router
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Thanks for your help, but I don't really want it to be a router, all I need is a switch. This is really simple to do on Linux with Linux Bridge or OVS, and should be the same on Windows with Network Bridges. The reason why I think this is related to Hyper-V is that the Network Bridge which meets all my requirements perfectly doesn't work well with Hyper-V, while all the other approachs I can think of somewhat involves Hyper-V.
I actually found that green screen. Although it's in Chinese, all the key information are still understandable.
The only method to do routing in windows is via RRAS role. Better option for routing is generally to use a layer three device.
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In summary, Windows cannot do layer 2 forwarding between multiple physical and virtual NICs, and the only way to do layer 3 is RRAS, which is only available on Windows Server. Therefore as a home user, the only option is to spend more money to buy a proper switch.
Is that right?
Hello,
I would recommend the next article that follow the process to create the NIC Teaming for a vm Host.
Hope this helps with your query,
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