# Overview

The HVM Network Plugin delivers advanced networking capabilities for HPE Morpheus. It provides a modular, plugin-based network provider for HPE HVM clusters and separates networking from the HPE Morpheus core, enabling independent updates, maintenance, and extensibility without impacting the HPE Morpheus platform.

The plugin is purpose-built for HPE HVM (KVM-based) clusters and manages the complete lifecycle of virtual networks on cluster hosts. It automates network creation, configuration, and deletion including Open vSwitch (OVS) bridge-backed port groups, VXLAN overlays, Linux VLAN interfaces, MacVTAP interfaces, and SR-IOV Virtual Function (VF) networks directly from the HPE Morpheus user interface.

The plugin supports five network types optimized for different use cases:

- **HVM Standard Network**: The system uses OVS-backed port groups with configurable VLAN modes (Access, Hybrid, Trunk-only) to connect VMs to physical networks with flexible segmentation.
- **HVM Overlay Network**: The system builds VXLAN-based overlays to enable scalable east-west VM communication across compute nodes.
- **HVM Data Network**: The system uses Linux VLAN interfaces to provide high-throughput, low-latency connectivity for storage traffic such as iSCSI and NFS.
- **HVM Private Network**: The system uses MacVTAP interfaces to provide isolated VM-to-physical network connectivity with minimal overhead.
- **HVM SR-IOV Network**: The system provides hardware-accelerated Virtual Function (VF) passthrough to deliver near-native network performance for VMs.
