Understanding Network Virtualization in SCVMM 2012 R2

Networking in SCVMM is a communication mechanism to and from SCVMM Server, Hyper-v Hosts, Hyper-v Cluster, virtual machines, application, services, physical switches, load balancer and third party hypervisor. Functionality includes:

Logical Networking of almost “Anything” hosted in SCVMM- Logical network is a concept of complete identification, transportation and forwarding of Ethernet traffic in virtualized environment.

• Provision and manage logical networks resources of private and public cloud
• Management of Logical networks, subnets, VLAN, Trunk or Uplinks, PVLAN, Mac address pool, Templates, profiles, static IP address pool, DHCP address pool, IP Address Management (IPAM)
• Integrate and manage third party hardware load balancer and Cisco virtual switch 1000v
• Provide functionality of Virtual IP Addresses (VIPs), quality of service (QoS), monitor network traffic and virtual switch extensions
• Creation of virtual switches and virtual network gateways

Network Virtualization – Network virtualization is a parallel concept to a server virtualization, where it allows you to abstract and run multiple virtual networks on a single physical network

• Connects virtual machines to other virtual machines, hosts, or applications running on the same logical network.
• Provides an independent migration of virtual machine which means when a VM moved to a different host from original host, SCVMM will automatically migrate that virtual network with the VM so that it remains connected to the rest of the infrastructure.
• Allows multiple tenants to have their own isolated networks for security and privacy reason.
• Allows unique IP address ranges for a tenant for management flexibility.
• Communicate using a gateway of a site or a different site if permitted by firewall
• Connect a VM running on a virtual network to any physical network in the same site or a different location.
• Connect cross-network using an inbox NVGRE gateway that can be deployed as a VM to provide this cross-network interoperability.

Network Virtualization is defined in Fabric>Networking Tab of SCVMM 2012 R2 management console. Virtual Machine networking is defined in VMs and Services>VM Networks Tab of SCVMM 2012 R2 management console.

Network virtualization terminology in SCVMM 2012 R2:

Logical networks: A logical network in VMM which contains the information of VLAN, PVLAN and subnets of a site in a Hyper-v host or a Hyper-v clusters. An IP address pool and a VM network can be associated with a logical network. A logical network can connect to another network or many network or vice-versa. Cloud function of each logical network is:

Logical network	Purpose	Tenant Cloud
External	·Site-to-site endpoint IP addresses ·Load balancer virtual IP addresses (VIPs) ·Network address translation (NAT) IP addresses for virtual networks ·Tenant VMs that need direct connectivity to the external network with full inbound access	Yes
Infrastructure	Used for service provider infrastructure, including host management, live migration, failover clustering, and remote storage. It cannot be accessed directly by tenants.	No
Load Balancer	·Uses static IP addresses ·Has outbound access to the external network via the load balancer ·Has inbound access that is restricted to only the ports that are exposed through the VIPs on the load balancer	Yes
Network Virtualization	· This network is automatically used for allocating provider addresses when a VM that is connected to a virtual network is placed onto a host. ·Only the gateway VMs connect to this directly. · Tenant VMs connect to their own VM network. Each tenant’s VM network is connected to the Network Virtualization logical network. ·A tenant VM will never connect to this directly. ·Static IP addresses are automatically assigned.	Yes
Gateway	Associated with forwarding gateways, which require one logical network per gateway. For each forwarding gateway, a logical network is associated with its respective scale unit and forwarding gateway.	No
Services	· The Services network is used for connectivity between services in the stamp by public-facing Windows Azure Pack features, and for SQL Server and MySQL Database DBaaS deployments. ·All deployments on the Services network are behind the load balancer and accessed through a virtual IP (VIP) on the load balancer. ·This logical network is also designed to provide support for any service provider-owned service and is likely to be used by high-density web servers initially, but potentially many other services over time.	No

IP Address Pool: An IP address pool is a range of IP addresses assigned to a logical network in a site which provides IP address, subnets, gateway, DNS, WINS related information to virtual machines and applications.

Mac Address Pool: Mac Address Pool contains default mac address ranges of virtual network adapter of virtual machine. You can also create customised mac address pool and assign that pool to virtual machines.

Pool Name	Vendor	Mac Address
Default MAC address pool	Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer	00:1D:D8:B7:1C:00 – 00:1D:D8:F4:1F:FF
Default VMware MAC address pool	VMware ESX	00:50:56:00:00:00 – 00:50:56:3F:FF:FF

Hardware Load Balancer: Hardware load balancer is a functionality within SCVMM networking to provide third party loading balancing of application and services. A virtual IP or IP address Pool can be associated with hardware load balancer.

VIP Templates: VIP templates is a standard template used to define virtual addresses associated with hardware load balancer. VIP is allocated to application, services and virtual machines hosted in SCVMM 2012 R2. A template that specifies the load-balancing behaviour for HTTPS traffic on a specific load balancer by manufacturer and model.

Logical Switch: logical switches act as containers for the properties or capabilities that you want network adapters to have. Instead of configuring individual properties or capabilities for each network adapter, you can specify the capabilities in port profiles and logical switches, which you can then apply to the appropriate adapters. Logical switches act as an extension of physical switch with a major difference that you don’t have to drive to data center, take a patch lead and connect to computer, then configure switch ports and assign VLAN tag to that port.  Logical switch where you define uplinks or physical adapter of Hyper-v hosts, associate uplinks with logical networks and sites.

Port Profiles: Port profiles act as containers for the security and privacy that you want network adapters to have. Instead of configuring individual properties or capabilities for each network adapter, you can specify these capabilities in port profiles, which you can then apply to the appropriate adapters. Port profiles are associated with an uplinks in logical switch.

Port Classification: Port classifications provide global names for identifying different types of virtual network adapter port profiles. A port classification can be used across multiple logical switches while the settings for the port classification remain specific to each logical switch. For example, you might create one port classification named FAST to identify ports that are configured to have more bandwidth, and another port classification named SLOW to identify ports that are configured to have less bandwidth.

Network Service: Network service is container whether you can add Windows and non-Windows network gateway and IP address management and monitoring information. An IP Address Management (IPAM) server that runs on Windows Server 2012 R2 to provide resources in VMM. You can use the IPAM server in network resource tab of SCVMM to configure and monitor logical networks and their associated network sites and IP address pools. You can also use the IPAM server to monitor the usage of VM networks that you have configured or changed in VMM.

Virtual switch extension: A virtual switch extension manager in a SCVMM allows you to use a software based vendor network-management console and the VMM management server together. For example you can install Cisco 1000v extension software in a VMM server and add the functionality of Cisco switches into the VMM console.

VM Network: A VM network in a logical network is the endpoint of network virtualization which directly connect a virtual machine to allow public or private communication among VMs or other network and services. A VM network is associated with a logical network for direct access to other VMs.

Related Articles:

Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch for Microsoft Hyper-V

How to implement hardware load balancer in SCVMM

Understanding VLAN, Trunk, NIC Teaming, Virtual Switch Configuration in Hyper-v Server 2012 R2

How to implement hardware load balancer in SCVMM

The following procedure describe Network Load Balancing functionality in Microsoft SCVMM. Microsoft native NLB is automatically included into SCVMM when you install SCVMM. This procedure describe how to install and configure third party load balancer in SCVMM.

Prerequisites:

• Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager. 
• Load balancer provider from either Citrix Citrix NetScaler or Brocade ServerIron ADX or F5.
• Logical network is already configured.
• IP Address Pool is already configured. 

Note: Load balancer provider is a third party product must be obtained from third party website using third party credentials.

Step1: Download and install load balancer provider then restart SCVMM services in Windows services. For Citrix Netscaler VPX follow the procedure. 

1. Log on to Netscaler using nsroot account or LDAP account. 
2. Click on Dashboard>Click downloads on right hand side corner
3. Click on NetScaler LB Provider for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 to download load balancer provider. 
4. Copy the load balancer provider and install in SCVMM server.
5. Restart SCVMM Windows Services. 

Step2: Create a Run As Account for Load Balancer

1. Open the Settings workspace.
2. On the Home tab, in the Create group, click Create Run As Account.
3. The Create Run As Account dialog box opens.
4. Enter a name and optional description to identify the credentials in VMM.
5. Enter credentials for the Run As account in the User name and Password text boxes. This is the username and password of virtual load balancer you have download from third party website and deployed in Hyper-v.
6. Unselect Validate domain credentials.
7. Click OK to create the Run As account.

Step3: Add Hardware Load balancer. Follow the below procedure to add load balancer

1. Open the Fabric workspace.
2. In the Fabric pane, expand Networking>Load Balancer>Right click  then click Load Balancers.
3. On the Credentials page, next to the Run As account box, click Browse, and then click a Run As account you created in step 3, click OK, and then click Next.
4. On the Host Group page, select the check box next to each host group where the load balancer will be available. By default, any child host groups are also selected.
5. On the Manufacturer and Model page, specify the load balancer manufacturer and model, and then click Next.
6. On the Address page, Provide TCP/IP or FQDN and port number of Load Balancer>click Next
7. On the Logical Network Affinity page, specify the load balancer affinity to logical networks, and then click Next.
8. On the provide page select provider>Click Test>click next
9. On the Summary page, confirm the settings, and then click Finish.

Step4: Creating a VIP Template for third party hardware load balancer

You can create two types of load balancer 1. Generic 2. Vendor Specific. 

For vendor specific load balancer do the following.

1. In Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), open the Fabric workspace.
2. In the Fabric pane, expand Networking, and then click VIP Templates.
3. On the Home tab, in the Show group, click Fabric Resources.
4. On the Home tab, in the Create group, click Create VIP Template.
5. On the Name page, type name, description and port: 443 of the template>click Next
6. On the Type Page>Select Specific>Select third party Vendor & NLB type> Click Next
7. On the protocol page> Select either TCP or UDP or both based on your requirement>Click next>Click Next>Click Finish.

For a Generic Load Balancer provider change the step 6 and select Generic then follow the step.

1. In Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), open the Fabric workspace.
2. In the Fabric pane, expand Networking, and then click VIP Templates.
3. On the Home tab, in the Show group, click Fabric Resources.
4. On the Home tab, in the Create group, click Create VIP Template.
5. On the Name page, type name, description and port: 443 of the template>click Next
6. On the Type Page>Select Generic> Click Next
7. On the protocol page> Select either TCP or UDP or both based on your requirement>Click next>Click Next>Click Finish.

• HTTPS pass-through- Traffic directly terminate at virtual machine and is not decrypted at load balancer.
• HTTPS terminate – traffic decrypted at load balancer and re-encrypted to virtual machine. This option is best for Exchange OWA and other application. You must log on to load balancer portal then import SSL certificate of OWA and also select re-encrypt option in VIP Template.
• There are two other option in this page HTTP and custom as well.

8. On the Persistence page> Select either persistence or non-persistent (custom) traffic. A Persistent traffic allow an OWA session directed to specific Exchange CAS server.
9. On the load balancing page>Select Round-Robin>Click Next
10. On the health monitor page>Click Insert> do the following>Click Next

• Protocol: https
• Request: Get/
• Response: 200
• Interval: 120
• Timed-out: 60
• Retry: 3

Note: The time-out value should be less than the interval value. The interval and time-out values are in seconds.

11. On the Load Balancing page>Select load balancing method>Click Next
12. On the Summary page, review the settings, and then click Finish.

Next step to create load balanced web services template and connect to load balancer. On the port profile of service template of the VM you have to select network load balanced then deploy the template into production.