vSphere Networking Challenges and SolutionsHow VMware vSphere is shaping thedirection of the networking industry

Scott Lowe, VCDX 39 / CTO, VMware Affinity Team, EMCvExpert, Author, Blogger, Geek

http://blog.scottlowe.org / Twitter: @scott_lowe

Before we start

• Get involved!

• Ask questions—this is your time and I want you to get the most out of it

• If you use Twitter, feel free to tweet about today’s session (use hashtag #NMVMUG)

• This presentation will be made available online after the event

• Setting the stage

• Traffic consolidation

• Network management and troubleshooting

• VLANs and expanding L2 domains

• Stretched VLANs

• Multi-tenancy and increased scale

Agenda

• The introduction of server virtualization into the data center is changing the face of data center networking

• While server virtualization provides a great number of benefits, it also introduces some challenges

• These challenges are apparent in a number of areas, including networking

• So what are the challenges, and how is the industry responding?

Setting the Stage

• There are now multiple OS instances and multiple traffic types contending for bandwidth

• There is new virtualization-specific traffic (vMotion, FT)

• This requires new tools to help manage contention

• Network I/O Control (at the vSphere layer)

• QoS (at the network layer)

• Virtualization-integrated switching solutions (more on that in a bit)

Traffic Consolidation

• Established network vendors are driving higher bandwidth standards (40 GE and 100 GE products recently introduced)

• Some new and upcoming vendors are using alternate technologies (consider Xsigo’s use of InfiniBand, for example)

Traffic Consolidation (continued)

• Movement of the access layer into the hypervisor means a loss of visibility, control, and (in some cases) functionality

• VMware has added functionality to distributed vSwitches to help with some of this (NetFlow, port mirroring)

• Other solutions exist

• Hypervisor bypass (think Cisco VIC, SR-IOV)

• More full-featured virtual switch (think Nexus 1000V)

Network Management and Troubleshooting

• Physical systems now need access to multiple VLANs

• VLANs must be provisioned to every physical host that might run a workload on that VLAN

• Required in order to support vMotion

• This results in very large L2 (broadcast) domains

• Large L2 domains generally not recommended by network architects

VLANs and Expanding L2 Domains

• Some switch vendors address this through vCenter integration and dynamic VLAN pruning

• In the long term, new technologies are being developed

• An example is Edge Virtual Bridging (EVB), standardized as 802.1Qbg

• EVB allows VLANs to be provisioned (and deprovisioned) dynamically as needed

VLANs and Expanding L2 Domains (continued)

• The desire to do long-distance vMotion means L2 domains stretched over distance

• A variety of technologies exist to enable stretched VLANs:

• Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS)

• Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV)

• Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS)

• Stretched VLANs also affect Layer 3 routing behaviors, driving the need for technologies like LISP

Stretched VLANs

• The 12-bit VLAN address space isn’t big enough

• Hybrid cloud solutions means individual customers need to be properly separated and segregated

• This drives the development of new protocols

• Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN)

• Network Virtualization using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE)

• Stateless Transport Tunneling (STT)

Multi-Tenancy and Increased Scale

Questions &Answers

Thank You