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The one-stop guide to modern networking for every VMware® administrator, engineer, and architect
Now that virtualization has blurred the lines between networking and servers, many VMware specialists need a stronger understanding of networks than they may have gained in earlier IT roles. Networking for VMware Administrators fills this crucial knowledge gap. Writing for VMware professionals, Christopher Wahl and Steve Pantol illuminate the core concepts of modern networking, and show how to apply them in designing, configuring, and troubleshooting any virtualized network environment.
Drawing on their extensive experience with a wide range of virtual network environments, the authors address physical networking, switching, storage networking, and several leading virtualization scenarios, including converged infrastructure.
Teaching through relevant examples, they focus on foundational concepts and features that will be valuable for years to come. To support rapid learning and mastery, they present clear learning objectives, questions, problems, a complete glossary, and extensive up-to-date references.
Coverage includes:
• The absolute basics: network models, layers, and interfaces, and why they matter
• Building networks that are less complex, more modular, and fully interoperable
• Improving your virtual network stack: tips, tricks, and techniques for avoiding common pitfalls
• Collaborating more effectively with network and storage professionals
• Understanding Ethernet, Advanced Layer 2, Layer 3, and modern converged infrastructure
• Mastering virtual switching and understanding how it differs from physical switching
• Designing and operating vSphere standard and distributed switching
• Working with third-party switches, including Cisco Nexus 1000V
• Creating powerful, resilient virtual networks to handle critical storage network traffic
• Deploying rackmount servers with 1 Gb and 10 Gb Ethernet
• Virtualizing blade servers with converged traffic and virtual NICs
Christopher Wahl has acquired well over a decade of IT experience in enterprise infrastructure design, implementation, and administration. He has provided architectural and engineering expertise in a variety of virtualization, data center, and private cloud based engagements while working with high performance technical teams in tiered data center environments. He currently holds the title of Senior Technical Architect at Ahead, a consulting firm based out of Chicago.
Steve Pantol has spent the last 14 years wearing various technical hats, with the last seven or so focused on assorted VMware technologies. He is a Senior Technical Architect at Ahead, working to build better datacenters and drive adoption of cloud technologies.
Foreword xix
Introduction xxi
Part I Physical Networking 101
Chapter 1 The Very Basics 1
Key Concepts 1
Introduction 1
Reinventing the Wheel 2
Summary 6
Chapter 2 A Tale of Two Network Models 7
Key Concepts 7
Introduction 7
Model Behavior 9
Layering 9
Encapsulation 9
The OSI Model 10
The TCP/IP Model 12
The Network Interface Layer 12
The Internet Layer 13
The Transport Layer 14
The Application Layer 14
Comparing OSI and TCP/IP Models 15
Summary 16
Chapter 3 Ethernet Networks 17
Key Concepts 17
Introduction 17
Ethernet 18
History and Theory of Operation 18
Ethernet Standards and Cable Types 19
Ethernet Addressing 23
Extending Ethernet Segments: Repeaters, Hubs, and Switches 24
Switching Logic 25
Summary 26
Chapter 4 Advanced Layer 2 27
Key Concepts 27
Introduction 27
Concepts 28
Trunking 30
Loop Avoidance and Spanning Tree 32
Spanning Tree Overview 32
PortFast 35
Rapid Spanning Tree 35
Link Aggregation 36
What Is Link Aggregation? 36
Dynamic Link Aggregation 39
Load Distribution Types 41
Summary 42
Reference 43
Chapter 5 Layer 3 45
Key Concepts 45
Introduction 45
The Network Layer 46
Routing and Forwarding 46
Connected, Static, and Dynamic Routes 46
The Gateway of Last Resort 47
IP Addressing and Subnetting 47
Classful Addressing 48
Classless Addressing 48
Reserved Addresses 50
Network Layer Supporting Applications 50
DHCP 50
DNS 51
ARP 51
Ping 52
Summary 52
Chapter 6 Converged Infrastructure 53
Key Concepts 53
Introduction 53
Concepts 54
Converged Infrastructure Advantages 54
Examples 55
Cisco UCS 55
HP BladeSystem 57
Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform 59
Summary 60
Part II Virtual Switching
Chapter 7 How Virtual Switching Differs from Physical Switching 61
Key Concepts 61
Introduction 61
Physical and Virtual Switch Comparison 62
Similarities 62
Differences 63
Switching Decisions 63
Physical Uplinks 65
Host Network Interface Card (NIC) 65
Virtual Ports 66
Virtual Machine NICs 67
VMkernel Ports 67
Service Console 67
VLANs 68
External Switch Tagging (EST) 68
Virtual Switch Tagging (VST) 68
Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT) 69
Summary 70
Chapter 8 vSphere Standard Switch 71
Key Concepts 71
Introduction 71
The vSphere Standard Switch 72
Plane English 72
Control Plane 72
Data Plane 73
vSwitch Properties 73
Ports 73
Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) 74
Security 75
Promiscuous Mode 75
MAC Address Changes 76
Forged Transmits 77
Discovery 78
Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) 79
Traffic Shaping 80
Traffic Shaping Math 82
NIC Teaming 82
Load Balancing 83
Network Failure Detection 84
Notify Switches 86
Failback 86
Failover Order 87
Hierarchy Overrides 87
VMkernel Ports 88
Port Properties and Services 88
IP Addresses 89
VM Port Groups 90
Summary 91
Chapter 9 vSphere Distributed Switch 93
Key Concepts 93
Introduction to the vSphere Distributed Switch 93
Control Plane 94
Handling vCenter Failure 94
Data Plane 96
Monitoring 96
Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) 97
Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) 97
NetFlow 98
Port Mirroring 101
Private VLANs 105
Primary VLAN 106
Promiscuous VLAN 106
Secondary VLANs 106
Community VLANs 107
Isolated VLAN 108
Distributed Port Groups 108
VMkernel Ports 109
Virtual Machines 110
Traffic Shaping 111
Egress 111
Load Balancing 112
Route Based on Physical NIC Load 112
Network I/O Control 115
Network Resource Pools 116
Shares 117
User-Defined Network Resource Pools 119
Summary 120
Chapter 10 Third Party Switches–1000V 121
Key Concepts 121
Introduction 121
Integration with vSphere 122
Architectural Differences 123
Virtual Supervisor Module 124
Port Profiles 126
Virtual Ethernet Module 128
Layer 2 Mode 129
Nexus 1000V in Layer 3 Mode 130
VEM Maximums 132
Advanced Features 132
A Comment on Nexus OS 132
Licensed Modes of Operation 132
Essential Edition 133
Advanced Edition 133
Summary 134
Chapter 11 Lab Scenario 135
Key Concepts 135
Introduction 135
Building a Virtual Network 135
Architectural Decisions 136
Network Design 136
Host Design 137
Data Traffic Design for Virtual Machines 138
Lab Scenario 139
Summary 143
Chapter 12 Standard vSwitch Design 145
Key Concepts 145
Introduction 145
Standard vSwitch Design 146
Sample Use Case 146
Naming Conventions 147
Ensuring Quality of Service 149
Network Adapters 151
Virtual Machine Traffic 153
Virtual Machine Port Groups 153
Failover Order 156
VMkernel Ports 158
Management 158
vMotion 161
Fault Tolerance 166
NFS Storage 168
VMkernel Failover Overview 170
Final Tuning 172
Confi guring Additional vSphere Hosts 173
Summary 173
Chapter 13 Distributed vSwitch Design 175
Key Concepts 175
Introduction 175
Distributed vSwitch Design 176
Use Case 176
Naming Conventions 177
Ensuring Quality of Service 178
Network IO Control 178
Priority Tagging with 802.1p 180
Differentiated Service Code Point 181
Creating the Distributed vSwitch 182
Network Adapters 185
Distributed Port Groups for Virtual Machines 186
Load Based Teaming 188
Distributed Port Groups for VMkernel Ports 190
Management 191
vMotion 193
Fault Tolerance 194
iSCSI Storage 195
VMkernel Failover Overview 196
Adding vSphere Hosts 198
Creating VMkernel Ports 204
Moving the vCenter Virtual Machine 208
Final Steps 212
Health Check 212
Network Discovery Protocol 214
Other Design Considerations 215
Fully Automated Design 215
Hybrid Automation Design 216
Which Is Right? 216
Summary 216
Part III You Got Your Storage in My Networking: IP Storage
Chapter 14 iSCSI General Use Cases 219
Key Concepts 219
Introduction 219
Understanding iSCSI 220
Lossless Versus Best Effort Protocols 220
Priority-Based Flow Control 220
VLAN Isolation 222
iSCSI with Jumbo Frames 222
iSCSI Components 223
Initiators 224
Targets 224
Naming 225
Security with CHAP 227
iSCSI Adapters 229
Software iSCSI Adapter 230
Dependent Hardware iSCSI Adapters 231
Independent Hardware iSCSI Adapters 232
iSCSI Design 233
NIC Teaming 234
Network Port Binding 236
Multiple vSwitch Design 236
Single vSwitch Design 238
Boot from iSCSI 239
Summary 241
Chapter 15 iSCSI Design and Confi guration 243
Key Concepts 243
Introduction 243
iSCSI Design 244
Use Case 244
Naming Conventions 245
Network Addresses 246
vSwitch Confi guration 247
iSCSI Distributed Port Groups 247
VMkernel Ports 250
Network Port Binding 254
Jumbo Frames 256
Adding iSCSI Devices 258
iSCSI Server and Targets 258
Authentication with CHAP 261
Creating VMFS Datastores 263
Path Selection Policy 265
Summary 267
Chapter 16 NFS General Use Cases 269
Key Concepts 269
Introduction 269
Understanding NFS 269
Lossless Versus Best Effort Protocols 270
VLAN Isolation 271
NFS with Jumbo Frames 271
NFS Components 272
Exports 272
Daemons 272
Mount Points 273
Security with ACLs 275
Network Adapters 276
NFS Design 276
Single Network 277
Multiple Networks 278
Link Aggregation Group 280
Summary 283
Chapter 17 NFS Design and Confi guration 285
Key Concepts 285
Introduction 285
NFS Design 285
Use Case 286
Naming Conventions 286
Network Addresses 287
vSwitch Confi guration 288
NFS vSwitch 288
Network Adapters 290
VMkernel Ports 291
Mounting NFS Storage 294
Summary 296
Part IV Other Design Scenarios
Chapter 18 Additional vSwitch Design Scenarios 297
Key Concepts 297
Introduction 297
Use Case 298
Naming Standards 298
Two Network Adapters 299
With Ethernet-based Storage 299
Without Ethernet-based Storage 300
Four Network Ports 300
With Ethernet-based Storage 300
Without Ethernet-based Storage 301
Six Network Ports 302
With Ethernet-based Storage—Six 1 Gb 303
Without Ethernet-based Storage—Six 1 Gb 304
With Ethernet-based Storage—Four 1 Gb + Two 10 Gb 304
Without Ethernet-based Storage—Four 1 Gb + Two 10 Gb 305
Eight Network Adapters 306
With Ethernet-based Storage—Eight 1 Gb 306
Without Ethernet-based Storage—Eight 1 Gb 307
With Ethernet-based Storage—Four 1 Gb + Four 10 Gb 308
Without Ethernet-based Storage—Four 1 Gb + Four 10 Gb 309
Summary 310
Chapter 19 Multi-NIC vMotion Architecture 311
Key Concepts 311
Introduction 311
Multi-NIC vMotion Use Cases 312
Design 312
Verifying Available Bandwidth 313
Controlling vMotion Traffi c 314
Distributed vSwitch Design 314
Standard vSwitch Design 317
Upstream Physical Switch Design 317
Confi guring Multi-NIC vMotion 318
Distributed Port Groups 318
VMkernel Ports 320
Traffic Shaping 321
Summary 322
Appendix A Networking for VMware Administrators: The VMware User Group 323
The VMware User Group 323
Index 325