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Description

  • Copyright 2014
  • Dimensions: 7" x 9-1/8"
  • Pages: 368
  • Edition: 1st
  • Book
  • ISBN-10: 0-13-351108-1
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-13-351108-6

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.

Extras

Tips

Readers please note that the authors don't recommend mixing VPC and iSCSI, so it is not an example in the book. For more information about this see: http://wahlnetwork.com/2014/03/25/avoid-lacp-iscsi-port-binding-multi-nic-vmotion/ and http://wahlnetwork.com/2014/02/19/exploring-enhanced-lacp-support-vsphere-5-5/

Author's Site

Please visit the author's site here

Sample Content

Online Sample Chapter

Networking for VMware Administrators: The vSphere Standard Switch

Sample Pages

Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 8 and Index)

Table of Contents

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

 

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