Simplify VMware vSphere* 4 Networking with Intel® Ethernet 10 Gigabit Server Adapters May 2010 Version 1.
WHITEPAPER Today’s Intel® Ethernet 10 Gigabit Server Adapters can greatly reduce the level of networking complexity in VMware vSphere* 4 environments. overview Advances in Intel® Ethernet 10 Gigabit (10GbE) Server Adapters and VMware vSphere* 4 enable migration away from legacy Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) networking. As the industry move toward 10GbE becomes more mainstream, IT organizations are considering its use for initiatives such as LAN/SAN consolidation and unification.
WHITEPAPER CONTENTS The Benefits of Virtualization Come with Limitations...................................................................................4 Today’s Reality: Undue Complexity from Gigabit Ethernet Solutions.....................................................4 The Solution: Refresh Infrastructure with 10 Gigabit Ethernet...................................................................6 Best Practices to Achieve Near-Native Performance......................................................
WHITEPAPER Advances in both Intel® Ethernet and vSphere* allow dramatic simplification of the environment without compromising areas such as security and traffic segmentation. Today’s Reality: Undue Complexity from Gigabit Ethernet Solutions The common practice when deploying virtualized hosts has been to segregate network functions onto dedicated GbE ports, adding addi- The Benefits of Virtualization Come with Limitations tional ports as demand for bandwidth increases.
WHITEPAPER Now is the time to take advantage of Intel® Ethernet 10GbE Server Adapters. APP OS APP OS APP OS APP OS VMware VMotion* Service Console Virtual NICs Port Groups Physical NICs Virtual Switch 1Gb 1Gb 1Gb 1Gb 1Gb 1Gb 1Gb 1Gb Figure 1: Virtual switch with multiple physical GbE server adapters.
WHITEPAPER With the advent of dynamic server consolidation and increasingly powerful servers such as those based on Intel® Nehalem architecture, more workloads and applications than ever before are being consolidated per physical host. APP OS VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch APP OS APP OS Port #1 10Gb APP OS VMware VMotion* Service Console Port #2 10Gb Figure 3: VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch with 10GbE server adapters for both network and service console traffic.
WHITEPAPER The VMware vDS feature manages traffic within the virtual network, providing robust functionality that simplifies the establishment of VLANs for the functional separation of network traffic.
WHITEPAPER Port groups enable faster response, and in normal day-to-day operations it enables greater efficiency by augmenting physical resources with more sophisticated virtual ones. The following traffic should be configured on dedicated VLANs: • Service console should be on a dedicated port group with its own dedicated VLAN ID; use port 2.
WHITEPAPER Using live migration in conjunction with network monitoring software helps to ensure uninterrupted operation of the VM(s) while minimizing the amount of time that they operate on a physical host where redundancy has been compromised. practice of immediately moving VMs to a new host in case of failure (and lost redundancy) should be used. This configuration can provide greater bandwidth to the VMs and the VMKernel traffic types or physical separation of traffic types if required.
WHITEPAPER The presence of sufficient bandwidth can also dramatically improve the speed of live VM migration using VMotion, removing potential bottlenecks for greater overall performance. sporadic traffic spikes from that port group, additional server adapters must be added (assuming additional PCI* slots are available). Additionally, the bandwidth allocated in the example cannot be used by any other traffic; it simply goes to waste.
WHITEPAPER 10GbE with DCB can also help some low-latency workloads, avoiding the need to upgrade to a special-purpose network to meet latency requirements, thereby reducing total cost of ownership. Intel Technologies that Enable Near-Native Performance In a virtualized environment, realizing the performance benefits of 10GbE requires the means to mitigate software overhead. To that end, features of Intel® Virtualization Technology◊ improve networking performance.
WHITEPAPER Advanced hardware and software technologies work together to ensure that security and performance requirements can be met without the large numbers of physical server connections required in GbE legacy networks. • Providing a physically simpler environment where misconfigurations are more easily avoided can also help to decrease support costs, as well as enable greater automation through the extensive use of virtualization.
