Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Virtualization of network services like load balancing, i rewalling, NAT, and dynamic
routing (aka NFV)
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Centralized controllers that automatically compute and program the virtual network
topologies across ESXi hosts
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Network virtualization will dramatically change the networking landscape moving forward,
but many of the basic principles outlined in this chapter are still going to be applicable as this
vision evolves. Getting started with virtual networking in vSphere 5.5 environments is a great
i rst step to moving toward full network virtualization in VMware NSX.
In the next chapter, we'll dive deep into storage in VMware vSphere, a critical component of
your vSphere environment.
h
e Bottom Line
Identify the components of virtual networking.
Virtual networking is a blend of virtual
switches, physical switches, VLANs, physical network adapters, virtual adapters, uplinks,
NIC teaming, VMs, and port groups.
Master It
What factors contribute to the design of a virtual network and the compo-
nents involved?
Create virtual switches and distributed virtual switches.
vSphere supports both vSphere
Standard Switches and vSphere Distributed Switches. vSphere Distributed Switches bring
new functionality to the vSphere networking environment, including private VLANs and a
centralized point of management for ESXi clusters.
Master It
You've asked a fellow vSphere administrator to create a vSphere Distributed
Switch for you, but the administrator is having problems completing the task because he
can't i nd out how to do this with an ESXi host selected in the vSphere Web Client. What
should you tell this administrator?
Master It
As a joint project between the networking and server teams, you are going to
implement LACP in your VMware vSphere 5.5 environment. What are some limitations
you need to know about?
Create and manage NIC teaming, VLANs, and private VLANs.
NIC teaming allows
virtual switches to have redundant network connections to the rest of the network. Virtual
switches also provide support for VLANs, which provide logical segmentation of the net-
work, and private VLANs, which provide added security to existing VLANs while allowing
systems to share the same IP subnet.
Master It
You'd like to use NIC teaming to bond multiple physical uplinks together for
greater redundancy and improved throughput. When selecting the NIC teaming policy,
you select Route Based On IP Hash, but then the vSwitch seems to lose connectivity.
What could be wrong?
Master It
How do you coni gure both a vSphere Standard Switch and a vSphere
Distributed Switch to pass VLAN tags all the way up to a guest OS?
