Chris Wahl of Wahl Network comments: One of the many design decisions surrounding an NSX implementation concerns the distributed switch (VDS) and how far it should stretch. Many folks create one large VDS and stretch it across clusters for simplicity’s sake, which is fine. Be aware, however, that VMs can be manually pushed around from […]
VDS
vSphere—Migration to vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS)—LIVE!
With vSphere 4.0, VMware has introduced vNetwork Distributed Switches (vDS). Implementation of a vDS in your environment is fairly straightforward and can be performed on a live environment! Read on for an example procedure to introduce vDS into your environment.
A VMware Hypervisor For Networkers?
As my friend Stu Miniman pointed out, a recent VMware video suggests the company is about to jump into networking in a big way. Dubbed “vFabric,” this new offering would be a generic hypervisor for virtual network devices, from load balancers to security appliances, and would presumably be integrated with the existing vNetwork Distributed Switch functionality. This appears to be more than just a generic version of what Cisco already uses for their Nexus 1000V!
Design Challenges Of Virtualized vCenter With A vNetwork Distributed Switch
The vSphere Enterprise Plus vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) has been heralded as an administrator’s time saver and single point of virtual networking configuration and visibility across many ESX/ESXi 4 hosts. However, the vDS presents some administrative challenges unique from the traditional vNetwork Standard Switch (vSS) that admins are used to. In this post I’ll first cover (with the help of a several others) general VM and vCenter vDS networking issues, but along the way I’ll explore thoughts about designing around a vDS for keeping vCenter as a VM.
Windows Storage Server-Based Systems Step Into 2008
Windows Storage Server is one of the most interesting products from Redmond, a specialized version of Windows Server with integrated storage target capabilities, including iSCSI, NFS, SMB, and single-instance storage (file-level deduplication). Although Windows Server 2008, with its many storage feature updates, was released last year, the updated version of Windows Storage Server was still under construction until last month. But Windows Storage Server 2008 is available to manufacturers today.