Owner's Manual

96 | Virtual Server Networking

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Overview

Virtual Server Networking is an Open Automation tool that enables Dell Networking

switch/routers in a data center network to retrieve configuration information from

hypervisors. VMware vSphere and Citrix Xen hypervisors are supported.

Both VMware and Citrix Xen provide SDKs and APIs for accessing their

configuration objects. VSN requires Layer 3 connectivity to access a hypervisor.

Figure 7-1 shows an example of the network architecture in which a Dell Networking

OS switch is connected to multiple servers, each of which may run a different type of

hypervisor. The vCenter hypervisor from VMware is a centralized server

management system that can manage multiple vSphere operating systems on which

multiple virtual machines (VMs) can run. The VMware ESX server is a single unit,

that may be managed by the hypervisor or act as an independent unit. The Citrix Xen

hypervisor uses a distributed management methodology under which a number of

XenServers are grouped in a management domain, with a master server managing the

other units in the domain.

Minimal packet drops may be seen when migrating VMS from one server to another.

The drops may vary from one second or higher, depending on the load on the server

and network.

Dell Networking OS supports up to eight hypervisor sessions. A hypervisor session

can consist of a single hypervisor unit (ESX, ESXi, XenServer) or a centralized

hypervisor (vCenter, Xenpool). A vSphere client is used to manage a single VMware

hypervisor. A vCenter server is a centralized management server for managing

multiple VMware hypervisors.

Figure 7-1. Virtual Server Networking example

vCenter

Citrix Xen

S60 FTOS

VMVMVMVM

vSphere