What is necessary for a virtual machine to communicate with other virtual machines?

A dedicated network card for each virtual machine is essential for facilitating communication with other virtual machines as it creates a unique network interface for each instance. This setup allows virtual machines to send and receive network traffic independently, ensuring efficient data exchange and enhancing overall network performance.

While physical server configurations or networking settings can play a role in virtual machine connectivity, they do not guarantee that each virtual machine has its own distinct path for data flow. Dedicated network cards provide clarity in terms of addressing and routing, which is crucial for virtual machine communication. Each network card can be configured with its own IP address, allowing for precise identification on the network.

In some virtualization environments, multiple virtual machines can share a single physical network interface through virtual networking; however, the consideration of dedicated network interfaces can improve security and manageability in complex configurations.