How to Create Hyper-V Virtual Switch

In this post, I show you how to create a virtual switch for your Hyper-V virtual machine. Hyper-V is Microsoft’s hardware virtualization tool that is included as a feature in Windows Server, Windows 10/11 Pro, and Enterprise editions. They run on a physical machine and access computing resources through software called a hypervisor. Most organizations use Hyper-V to deploy virtual machines on a computer for enterprise use. This makes the use of third-party tools such as VMWare or Oracle VirtualBox redundant in most cases.

Hyper-V provides users with the opportunity to create and run a software version of a computer known as a virtual machine. Virtual machines are virtualized instances of a computer that can perform almost all of the same functions as normal computers.

Creating Hyper-V Virtual Switch is required if your Hyper-V network adapter is not connected and you are seeing the “No internet access” prompt on your VM. This is caused by the misconfigurations of the virtual machine.

In this case, the network adapter in the virtual machine settings will report “No connected,” as shown below. It is also easy to increase Disk Size in Hyper-V. If you also Stuck in Stopping State, it also easy to fix it. Hyper-V makes it easy to clone a Virtual Machine via Export and Import.

At this point, the Hyper-V virtual machine will report no internet access. This will impact the VM users, as they will not be able to use the internet on the virtual machine. The solution is to create a virtual switch from the Hyper-V virtual switch manager and attach it to the virtual machine.

Create Hyper-V Virtual Switch

The only thing that can resolve the above issue is creating a virtual switch. To create a virtual switch, follow the below steps:

See also how to install and configure Hyper-V Cluster On Windows Server via PowerShell and Server Manager, and Hyper-V Server Core Mode: How to install free Hyper-V Server on a VMware Workstation.

Step 1: Open the Hyper-V Manager

From the right-side menu, select Virtual Switch Manager.

You may want to see how to fix “An error occurred while attempting to connect to the server: Check if the Virtual Machine Management service is running or you are not authorized to connect to this server“, and How does Key Rotation work in MBAM?

Step 2 – Create a Virtual Switch

On the right side, under the section Create virtual switch, select External, then click on Create Virtual Switch.

Here are a few things you should know about the Hyper-V virtual switch. It is divided into three categories, i.e. External, Internal and Private. See their explanations below:

External - creates a virtual switch that binds to the physical network adapter so that virtual machines can access a physical network

Internal - creates a virtual switch that can be used only the virtual machines that run on this physical computer, and between the virtual machines and the physical computer. An internal virtual switch doesn't provide connectivity to a physical nnetwork connection. 

Private - creates a virtual switch that can be used only by the virtual machines that run on this physical computer

Also, see “Enable HyperV on Windows: How to install Windows 11 on HyperV“, how to install and Configure Hyper-V on Windows Server on Windows Server 2019, and 2022 via the Server Manager, PowerShell or DISM.

Step 3 – Specify the name

In this step, you need to specify a unique for your Hyper-V Virtual Switch. The name specified here is External Switch. Make sure you check the External Network radio button and check the “Allow management operating system to share this network adapter.”

From the above screen, select the newtork switch of your computer that you want to create the virtual switch from, and then click Apply and Ok to complete it.

Please see Fast user switching: How to create a desktop shortcut in Windows 10 to switch User Accounts, how to install and Configure Hyper-V on Windows Server on Windows Server 2019, and 2022 via the Server Manager, PowerShell or DISM.

Step 4 – Assign the Virtual Switch to the Virtual Machine

To assign the virtual switch to the virtual machine, select the VM to which you wish to attach the virtual switch you just created. Then, from the left-menu of the VM, select Settings

This will open a new window. In the new window, select the name of the virtual switch created above, click Apply, and then click Ok to attach it.

Now check the virtual machine to see that there is network access as shown below:

In conclusion, Hyper-V is a virtualization platform that allows organizations to run multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical server. Overall, Hyper-V is a powerful and flexible virtualization platform that can provide a number of benefits to organizations of all sizes.

In short: Hyper-V can help organizations to save money, improve efficiency, and enhance security.

I hope you found the post on Create Hyper-V Virtual Switch useful. Please feel free to leave a comment below.