TCP/IP stacks provide flexibility in the VMkernel interface design by allowing you to apply specific DNS and default gateway configurations to a VMkernel interface on a host.
There are three preconfigured TCP/IP stacks, as follows:
- Default TCP/IP stack: Supports management traffic
- vMotion TCP/IP stack: Supports the live migration, vMotion, of virtual machines
- Provisioning TCP/IP stack: Supports the cold migration, cloning, and snapshot creation of virtual machines
Custom TCP/IP stacks can be used to handle the network traffic of other applications and services, which may require separate DNS and default gateway configurations.