VMware Infrastructure 3

Virtual Networking 101

Guy Brunsdon is starting a blog just on virtual infrastructure networking. He’s kicking off his writing with a little intro over on the VI Team Blog. Link: Networking for VI admins | VI Team Blog.

The world of networking is often unfamiliar territory for
server and VMware Infrastructure (VI) admins. In most enterprises, networking
is the responsibility of a dedicated team of networking experts who may be
unfamiliar with the world of server virtualization. So how does a VI admin
approach networking? How does he or she say to the networking folks, “I want to
roll out VI across these hosts and I need them all connected to the production
network.”

First up, involve the network team early and provide them
with some information on how VI networking works. A good place to start is the
VMware Virtual Networking Concepts paper at http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/997
This paper covers the essentials of VI networking: what is a vSwitch? How do I
use VLANs? What are my options for NIC teaming, and so on? A network admin will
find the concepts presented quite familiar. vSwitches (virtual switches) are
very similar to L2 physical switches. Having the network folks read this paper
will help put you all on the same page.