Service Manual

Virtual Server Networking

Virtual server networking (VSN) is supported on the S4810, S4820T, S5000, and MXL switch platforms.

As a part of the Open Automation package, VSN provides real-time communication between the Dell Network fabric and the virtual servers

to automate network management and conguration tasks throughout the data center. VSN provides a closed-loop provisioning system;

for example, the automatic reprovisioning of virtual local area networks (VLANs) and port proles across multiple switches simultaneously,

thereby increasing employee productivity and minimizing human error.

Because Open Automation supports hypervisors from multiple vendors, data center managers can use a single mechanism to

simultaneously support multiple hypervisors and their current management tools.

VSN installs as a self-contained package and requires the Smart Scripting package.

NOTE: VSN is supported only on standalone switches and VMware virtual distributed switches (VDS); it is not supported in

stacked congurations.

Topics:

• Overview

• Install VSN

• Installing VSN

• Enabling VSN in a Hypervisor Session

• Changing VSN Settings

• Discovery

• Connectivity

• Running VSN Scripts

• Disabling a Hypervisor Session

• Removing a Hypervisor Session

• Uninstalling VSN

• Viewing VSN Information

Overview

Virtual server networking is an Open Automation tool that enables Dell Networking switches and routers in a data center network to

retrieve conguration information from hypervisors. VMware vSphere and Citrix Xen hypervisors are supported.

Both VMware and Citrix Xen provide software development kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs) for accessing their

conguration objects. VSN requires Layer 3 connectivity to access a hypervisor.

The following shows an example of the network architecture in which a Dell Networking OS switch connects to multiple servers, each of

which may run a dierent type of hypervisor. The vCenter hypervisor from VMware is a centralized server management system that

manages multiple vSphere operating systems on which multiple virtual machines (VMs) run. The VMware ESX server is a single unit, that

can 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 is 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.

110 Virtual Server Networking