Tag: SCVMM

Understanding Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Virtualization

The evolution of virtualization lead to an evolution of wide range of virtualized technology including the key building block of a data center which is Network. A traditional network used be wired connection of physical switches and devices. A network administrator has nightmare making some configuration changes and possibility of breaking another configuration while doing same changes. Putting together a massive data center would have been expensive venture and lengthy project. Since the virtualization and cloud services on the horizon, anything can be offered as a service and almost anything can virtualised and software defined.

Since development of Microsoft SCVMM and VMware NSX, network function virtualization (NFV), network virtualization (NV) and software defined network (SDN) are making bold statement on-premises based customer and cloud based service provider. Out of all great benefits having a software defined network, two key benefits standout among all which are easy provisioning a network and easy change control of that network. You don’t have to fiddle around physical layer of network and you certainly don’t have to modify virtual host to provision a complete network with few mouse click. How does it work?

Software Defined Networking- Software defined networking (SDN) is a dynamic, manageable, cost-effective, and adaptable, high-bandwidth, agile open architecture. SDN architectures decouple network control and forwarding functions, enabling network control to become directly programmable and the underlying infrastructure to be abstracted from applications and network services. Examples of Cisco software defined networking is here.

The fundamental building block of SDN is:

  • Programmable: Network control is directly programmable because it is decoupled from forwarding functions.
  • Agile: Abstracting control from forwarding lets administrators dynamically adjust network-wide traffic flow to meet changing needs.
  • Centrally managed: Network intelligence is (logically) centralized in software-based SDN controllers that maintain a global view of the network, which appears to applications and policy engines as a single, logical switch.
  • Programmatically configured: SDN lets network managers configure, manage, secure, and optimize network resources very quickly via dynamic, automated SDN programs, which they can write themselves because the programs do not depend on proprietary software.
  • Open standards-based and vendor-neutral: When implemented through open standards, SDN simplifies network design and operation because instructions are provided by SDN controllers instead of multiple, vendor-specific devices and protocols.

Cisco SDN Capable Switches

Modular Switches

Cisco Nexus 9516
Cisco Nexus 9508
Cisco Nexus 9504

Fixed Switches

Cisco Nexus 9396PX
Cisco Nexus 9396TX
Cisco Nexus 93128TX
Cisco Nexus 9372PX
Cisco Nexus 9372TX
Cisco Nexus 9336PQ ACI Spine Switch
Cisco Nexus 9332PQ

Network Virtualization- A virtualized network is simply partitioning existing physical network and creating multiple logical network. Network virtualization literally tries to create logical segments in an existing network by dividing the network logically at the flow level. End goal is to allow multiple virtual machine in same logical segment or a private portion of network allocated by business. In a physical networking you cannot have same IP address range within same network and manage traffic for two different kind of services and application. But in a virtual world you can have same IP range segregated in logical network. Let’s say two different business/tenant have 10.124.3.x/24 IP address scheme in their internal network. But both business/tenant decided to migrate to Microsoft Azure platform and bring their own IP address scheme (10.124.3.x/24) with them. It is absolutely possible for them to retain their own IP address and migrate to Microsoft Azure. You will not see changes within Azure portal. You even don’t know that another organisation have same internal IP address scheme and possibly hosted in same Hyper-v host. It is programmatically and logically managed by Azure Stack and SCVMM network virtualization technology.

Network Functions Virtualization- Network function virtualization is virtualising layer 4 to layer 7 of OSI model in a software defined network. NFV runs on high-performance x86 platforms, and it enables users to turn up functions on selected tunnels in the network. The end goal is to allow administrator to create a service profile for a VM then create logical workflow within the network (the tunnel) and then build virtual services on that specific logical environment. NFV saves a lot of time on provisioning and managing application level of network. Functions like IDS, firewall and load balancer can be virtualised in Microsoft SCVMM and VMware NSX.

Here are some Cisco NFV products.

IOS-XRv Virtual Router: Scale your network when and where you need with this carrier-class router.

Network Service Virtualization- Network Service Virtualization (NSV) virtualizes a network service, for example, a firewall module or IPS software instance, by dividing the software image so that it may be accessed independently among different applications all from a common hardware base. NSV eliminates cost of acquiring a separate hardware for single purpose instead it uses same hardware to service different purpose every time a network is accessed or service is requested. It also open the door for service provider offer security as a service to various customer.

Network security appliances are now bundled as a set of security functions within one appliance. For example, firewalls were offered on special purpose hardware as were IPS (Intrusion Protection System), Web Filter, Content Filter, VPN (Virtual Private Network), NBAD (Network-Based Anomaly Detection) and other security products. This integration allows for greater software collaboration between security elements, lowers cost of acquisition and streamlines operations.

Cisco virtualized network services available on the Cisco Catalyst 6500 series platform.

Network security virtualization

  • Virtual firewall contexts also called security contexts
  • Up to 250 mixed-mode multiple virtual firewalls
  • Routed firewalls (Layer 3)
  • Transparent firewalls (Layer 2, or stealth)
  • Mixed-mode firewalls combination of both Layer 2 and Layer 3 firewalls coexisting on the same physical firewall. 

Virtual Route Forwarding (VRF) network services

  • NetFlow on VRF interfaces
  • VRF-aware syslog
  • VRF-aware TACACS
  • VRF-aware Telnet
  • Virtualized address management policies using VRF-aware DHCP
  • VRF-aware TACACS
  • Optimized traffic redirection using PBR-set VRF

Finally you can have all these in one basket without incurring cost for each component once you have System Center Virtual Machine Manager or Microsoft Azure Stack implemented in on-premises infrastructure or you choose to migrate to Microsoft Azure platform.

Relevant Articles

Comparing VMware vSwitch with SCVMM Network Virtualization

Understanding Network Virtualization in SCVMM 2012 R2

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

Comparing VMware vSwitch with SCVMM Network Virtualization

Feature VMware vSphere System Center

VMM 2012 R2
Standard vSwitch DV Switch
Switch Features Yes Yes Yes
Layer 2 Forwarding Yes Yes Yes
IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Tagging Yes Yes Yes
Multicast Support Yes Yes Yes
Network Policy – Yes Yes
Network Migration – Yes Yes
NVGRE/ VXLAN – Procure NSX or Cisco Appliance Yes
L3 Network Support – Procure NSX or Cisco Appliance Yes
Network Virtualization – Procure NSX or Cisco Appliance Yes
NIC Teaming Yes Yes Yes
Network Load Balancing – Procure NSX or Cisco Appliance Yes
Virtual Switch Extension – Yes Yes
Physical Switch Connectivity
EtherChannel Yes Yes Yes
Load Balancing Algorithms
Port Monitoring Yes Yes Yes
Third party Hardware load balancing – Yes Yes
Traffic Management Features
Bandwidth Limiting – Yes Yes
Traffic Monitoring – Yes Yes
Security Features
Port Security Yes Yes Yes
Private VLANs – Yes Yes
Management Features
Manageability Yes Yes Yes
Third Party APIs – Yes Yes
Port Policy Yes Yes Yes
Netflow Yes* Yes* Yes
Syslog Yes** Yes** Yes
SNMP Yes Yes Yes

* Experimental Support

** Virtual switch network syslog information is exported and included with VMware ESX events.

References:

VMware Distributed Switch

VMware NSX

Microsoft System Center Features 

Related Articles:

Understanding Network Virtualization in SCVMM 2012 R2

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

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:

SCVMM Network

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.

Host Config

Network virtualization terminology in SCVMM 2012 R2:

Fabric.networking

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.

VM Networks

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:

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.
  1. 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.
  2. On the load balancing page>Select Round-Robin>Click Next
  3. 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.

  1. On the Load Balancing page>Select load balancing method>Click Next
  2. 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.