The Common Concepts Used!

Physical Network:

A network of physical machines that are connected so that they can send data to and receive data from each other. VMware ESXi runs on a physical machine

Virtual Network:

A network of virtual machines running on a physical machine that are connected logically to each other so that they can send data to and receive data from each other.

Physical Ethernet Switch:

It manages network traffic between machines on the physical network. A switch has multiple ports, each of which can be connected to a single machine or another switch on the network.?

vSphere Standard Switch:

It works much like a physical Ethernet switch. It detects which virtual machines are logically connected to each of its virtual ports and uses that information to forward traffic to the correct virtual machines.?

Standard Port Group:

It specifies port configuration options such as bandwidth limitations and VLAN tagging policies for each member port. Network services connect to standard switches through port groups.?

vSphere Distributed Switch:

It acts as a single switch across all associated hosts in a data center to provide centralized provisioning, administration, and monitoring of virtual networks. You configure a vSphere distributed switch on the vCenter Server.

NIC Teaming:

NIC teaming occurs when multiple uplink adapters are associated with a single switch to form a team. A team can either share the load of traffic between physical and virtual networks among some or all of its members.

VLAN:

VLAN enable a single physical LAN segment?. The VMkernel networking layer provides connectivity to hosts and handles the standard infrastructure traffic of vSphere vMotion, IP storage, Fault Tolerance, and Virtual SAN.

vSphere Standard Switch:

a vSphere Standard Switch to provide network connectivity for hosts, virtual machines, and to handle VMkernel traffic. Depending on the connection type that you want to create, you can create a new vSphere Standard Switch with a VMkernel adapter, only connect physical network adapters to the new switch, or create the switch with a virtual machine port group.?

Uplink port group:

An uplink port group or dvuplink port group is defined during the creation of the distributed switch and can have one or more uplinks. An uplink is a template that you use to configure physical connections of hosts as well as failover and load balancing policies.?

Distributed port group:

Distributed port groups provide network connectivity to virtual machines and accommodate VMkernel traffic. You identify each distributed port group by using a network label, which must be unique to the current data center.

Add a Distributed Port Group:

Add a distributed port group to a vSphere Distributed Switch to create a distributed switch network for your virtual machines and to associate VMkernel adapters.

Working with Distributed Ports:

A distributed port is a port on a vSphere distributed switch that connects to the VMkernel or to a virtual machine's network adapter. Default distributed port configuration is determined by the distributed port group settings, but some settings for individual distributed ports can be overridden.?

Configuring Virtual Machine Networking on a vSphere Distributed Switch:?

Connect virtual machines to a vSphere distributed switch either by configuring an individual virtual machine NIC or migrating groups of virtual machines from the vSphere distributed switch itself. Connect virtual machines to vSphere distributed switches by connecting their associated virtual network adapters to distributed port groups.

Migrate Virtual Machines to or from a vSphere Distributed Switch:

In addition to connecting virtual machines to a distributed switch at the individual virtual machine level, you can migrate a group of virtual machines between a vSphere Distributed Switch network and a vSphere Standard Switch network.

Topology Diagrams of a vSphere Distributed Switch in the vSphere Web Client:

The topology diagrams of a vSphere Distributed Switch in the vSphere Web Client show the structure of virtual machine adapters, VMkernel adapters, and physical adapters in the switch. You can examine the components, arranged in port groups, whose traffic is handled by the switch, and the connections between them.

VMkernel Networking Layer:

The VMkernel networking layer provides connectivity to hosts and handles the standard system traffic of vSphere vMotion, IP storage, Fault Tolerance, Virtual SAN, and others. You can also create VMkernel adapters on the source and target vSphere Replication hosts to isolate the replication data traffic.

TCP/IP Stacks at the VMkernel Level:

* Default TCP/IP stack

* vMotion TCP/IP stack

* Provisioning TCP/IP stack?

* Custom TCP/IP stacks

Separate VMkernel adapter?- System Traffic Types:

* Management traffic

* vMotion traffic

* Provisioning traffic

* IP storage traffic and discovery

* Fault Tolerance traffic

* vSphere Replication traffic

* vSphere Replication NFC traffic

* Virtual SAN traffic

?LACP Support on a vSphere Distributed Switch:

With LACP support on a vSphere Distributed Switch, you can connect ESXi hosts to physical switches by using dynamic link aggregation. You can create multiple link aggregation groups (LAGs) on a distributed switch to aggregate the bandwidth of physical NICs on ESXi hosts that are connected to LACP port channels

Backing Up and Restoring a vSphere Distributed Switch Configuration:

vCenter Server provides the ability to backup and restore the configuration of a vSphere Distributed Switch. You can restore the virtual network configuration in cases of database or upgrade failure. You can also use a saved switch configuration as a template to create a copy of the switch in the same or a new vSphere environment.

Export vSphere Distributed Switch Configurations:

You can export vSphere Distributed Switch and distributed port group configurations to a file. The file preserves valid network configurations, enabling transfer of these configurations to other environments. This functionality is available only with vCenter Server 5.1 and later. You can export a switch configuration before you upgrade vCenter Server if you upgrade from vCenter Server 5.1.

Restore a vSphere Distributed Switch Configuration:

Use the restore option to reset the configuration of an existing distributed switch to the settings in the configuration file. Restoring a distributed switch changes the settings on the selected switch back to the settings saved in the configuration file.?

Teaming and Failover Policy:

NIC teaming lets you increase the network capacity of a virtual switch by including two or more physical NICs in a team. To determine how the traffic is rerouted in case of adapter failure, you include physical NICs in a failover order.?

Load Balancing Policy:

The Load Balancing policy determines how network traffic is distributed between the network adapters in a NIC team. vSphere virtual switches load balance only the outgoing traffic. Incoming traffic is controlled by the load balancing policy on the physical switch.?

Route Based on Originating Virtual Port:

Each virtual machine running on an ESXi host has an associated virtual port ID on the virtual switch. To calculate an uplink for a virtual machine, the virtual switch uses the virtual machine port ID and the number of uplinks in the NIC team. After the virtual switch selects an uplink for a virtual machine, it always forwards traffic through the same uplink for this virtual machine as long as the machine runs on the same port.

Route Based on Source MAC Hash:

The virtual switch selects an uplink for a virtual machine based on the virtual machine MAC address. To calculate an uplink for a virtual machine, the virtual switch uses the virtual machine MAC address and the number of uplinks in the NIC team.

Route Based on IP Hash:

The virtual switch selects uplinks for virtual machines based on the source and destination IP address of each packet. To calculate an uplink for a virtual machine, the virtual switch takes the last octet of both source and destination IP addresses in the packet, puts them through a XOR operation, and then runs the result through another calculation based on the number of uplinks in the NIC team. The result is a number between 0 and the number of uplinks in the team minus one.

Route Based on Physical NIC Load:

Route Based on Physical NIC Load is based on Route Based on Originating Virtual Port, where the virtual switch checks the actual load of the uplinks and takes steps to reduce it on overloaded uplinks. Available only for vSphere Distributed Switch. The distributed switch calculates uplinks for virtual machines by taking their port ID and the number of uplinks in the NIC team. The distributed switch tests the uplinks every 30 seconds, and if their load exceeds 75 percent of usage, the port ID of the virtual machine with the highest I/O is moved to a different uplink.

VLAN Policy:

VLAN policies determine how VLANs function across your network environment. A virtual local area network (VLAN) is a group of hosts with a common set of requirements, which communicate as if they were attached to the same broadcast domain, regardless of their physical location. A VLAN has the same attributes as a physical local area network (LAN), but it allows for end stations to be grouped together even if not on the same network switch.?

Configure VLAN Tagging on a Distributed Port Group or Distributed Port:

To apply VLAN tagging globally on all distributed ports, you must set the VLAN policy on a distributed port group. To integrate the virtual traffic on the port with physical VLANs in a different way from the parent distributed port group, you must use the VLAN policy on a distributed port.

Traffic Shaping Policy:

A traffic shaping policy is defined by average bandwidth, peak bandwidth, and burst size. You can establish a traffic shaping policy for each port group and each distributed port or distributed port group.?ESXi shapes outbound network traffic on standard switches and inbound and outbound traffic on distributed switches. Traffic shaping restricts the network bandwidth available on a port, but can also be configured to allow bursts of traffic to flow through at higher speeds.?