External Switch Tagging

* All VLAN tagging of packets is performed on the physical switch.
* ESX host network adapters are connected to access ports on the physical switch.
* The portroups connected to the virtual switch must have their VLAN ID set to 0.

Virtual Switch Tagging

* All VLAN tagging of packets is performed by the virtual switch, before leaving the ESX host.
* The ESX host network adapters must be connected to trunk ports on the physical switch.
* The portgroups connected to the virtual switch must have an appropriate VLAN ID ( 1-4094 ) specified.

Virtual Guest Tagging

* All VLAN tagging is performed by the virtual machine.
* You must install an 802.1Q VLAN trunking driver inside the virtual machine,
* VLAN tags are preserved between the virtual machine networking stack and external switch when frames are passed to/from virtual switches.
* Physical switch ports are set to trunk port.

* The portroups connected to the virtual switch must have their VLAN ID set to 4095.