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1. The Introduction of Virtual Networking
When people hear the terms, they typically relate it to client and server virtualization,
sincethose have been around for some time and are considered mature by most people
in theIT field. But a newer virtualization type is slowly working its way into IT
environments: virtual networking. This article takes a brief look at the introduction of
virtual networking
and how it can be used in a number of different ways to aid in the deployment and
operation of virtualized client and server environments.
Back to Basics: Virtualization
Before getting into virtual networking, let's back up and define "virtualization." In simplest
terms, the virtualization of an object – whether it be a client, server or a network device –
decouples the functions of that object from the underlying physical hardware. For
example, a server that is not virtualized is built upon a physical server case,
motherboard, CPU, memory, and various other physical components. When a server
becomes virtualized, then the physical components of the server are emulated for the
server operating system (OS); from the perspective of the server OS, it is sitting on a
physical server. The common term used to refer to this virtual server (or client) at this
point is a virtual machine (VM). The specific platform that is used to provide this emulated
environment can be anything from VMware VSphere to Microsoft Hyper-V (with many
other options available). Some of the newest server operating systems have actually
been optimized to work on these different emulated environments. Now, what this means
is that part of the server OS is aware that the hardware is being emulated and can work
with that specific environment to optimize the resource usage of the server. To be clear, it
is also just as possible to virtualize desktop operating systems in these environments.
Virtual Networking: IT Agility
So what is virtual networking? Virtual networking involves using virtualized network
resources, similar to how server virtualization virtualizes physical servers and allows
those virtualized resources to be used, moved, and modified separately from the physical
hardware. Virtual networking brings that same flexibility and IT agility to network
resources, and makes it easier to provision and manage network resources for virtual
workloads.
One of the functions that exist in these virtualized platforms is the ability to share a
common network interface card (NIC) that exists on the physical server. The exact term
used for this functionality differs depending on the specific platform being used. For
instance, the term "vSwitch" is commonly used to refer to a switch that is virtualized.
Each of the VMs that exist on these platforms is provided with a Virtual Network Interface
Card (vNIC), which is connected (virtually) to a virtual switch (vSwitch). Originally the
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2. functionality of this vSwitch was rather limited, as it only provided basic switch
functionality (layer 2); the more advanced features were not used until the traffic left the
physical server and went to a physical switch or other networking device. This is where
networking and virtualization come together.
As data centers designed around the cloud are being implemented it is becoming
increasingly important for the more advanced switching features to be supported at the
vSwitch and not at the physical switch. In an effort to fill this gap a number of networking
providers (such as Cisco) have partnered with the virtual platform providers (such as
VMware) to offer alternatives to the default vSwitch.
For example, Cisco’s Nexus 1000V switch replaces VMware’s default vSwitch with one
that offers several optimizations and features that have historically been supported only
on Cisco physical switches. This includes legacy features like Port Security, IP Source
Guard (IPSG), Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI), and DHCP Snooping, as well as newer
features like Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN), which takes the idea of
virtual LANs (VLAN) and extends it to support over 16 million logical networks in very
large-scale cloud deployments across multiple physical servers.
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3. As the virtual networking market continues to evolve, a number of networking devices are
also being implemented, including (better) virtual routers, virtual firewalls, and load
balancers.
The networking environment is bound for a considerable shift in how the so-called typical
network is built – it is just a question of how long it takes for the shift to virtual network
elements to take over. This does not necessarily mean that physical components will go
away – it just means that their function within the network will change as they will need to
support the many multitenant features (both internal and external) that are provided by
these evolutions.
More related:
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Juniper QFX5100 switch
Hot topic of Interop 2013 exhibition in New York: infrastructure construction
More Cisco products and Reviews you can visit: http://www.3anetwork.com/blog
It is referred from www.petri.co.il/virtual-networking-basics.html
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original new Cisco networking equipments, including Cisco Catalyst switches, Cisco
routers, Cisco firewalls, Cisco wireless products, Cisco modules and interface cards
products at competitive price and ship to worldwide.
Our website: http://www.3anetwork.com
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