Networking for VMware Administrators

Networking for VMware Administrators

Released March 2014
Publisher(s): VMware Press
ISBN: 9780133511260

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Book description

The one-stop guide to modern networking for every VMware® administrator, engineer, and architect

Now that virtualization has blurred the lines between networking and servers, many VMware specialists need a stronger understanding of networks than they may have gained in earlier IT roles. Networking for VMware Administrators fills this crucial knowledge gap. Writing for VMware professionals, Christopher Wahl and Steve Pantol illuminate the core concepts of modern networking, and show how to apply them in designing, configuring, and troubleshooting any virtualized network environment.

Drawing on their extensive experience with a wide range of virtual network environments, the authors address physical networking, switching, storage networking, and several leading virtualization scenarios, including converged infrastructure.

Teaching through relevant examples, they focus on foundational concepts and features that will be valuable for years to come. To support rapid learning and mastery, they present clear learning objectives, questions, problems, a complete glossary, and extensive up-to-date references.

Coverage includes:

• The absolute basics: network models, layers,  and interfaces, and why they matter

• Building networks that are less complex,  more modular, and fully interoperable

• Improving your virtual network stack: tips, tricks, and techniques for avoiding common pitfalls

• Collaborating more effectively with network  and storage professionals

• Understanding Ethernet, Advanced Layer 2, Layer 3, and modern converged infrastructure

• Mastering virtual switching and understanding how it differs from physical switching

• Designing and operating vSphere standard  and distributed switching

• Working with third-party switches, including Cisco Nexus 1000V

• Creating powerful, resilient virtual networks to handle critical storage network traffic

• Deploying rackmount servers with 1 Gb and  10 Gb Ethernet

• Virtualizing blade servers with converged  traffic and virtual NICs

Christopher Wahl has acquired well over a decade of IT experience in enterprise infrastructure design, implementation, and administration. He has provided architectural and engineering expertise in a variety of virtualization, data center, and private cloud based engagements while working with high performance technical teams in tiered data center environments. He currently holds the title of Senior Technical Architect at Ahead, a consulting firm based out of Chicago.

Steve Pantol has spent the last 14 years wearing various technical hats, with the last seven or so focused on assorted VMware technologies. He is a Senior Technical Architect at Ahead, working to build better datacenters and drive adoption of cloud technologies.

Table of contents

  1. About This eBook
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication page
  5. Contents
  6. Foreword
  7. Introduction
    1. Motivation for Writing This Book
    2. Who Should Read This Book
    3. How to Use This Book
  8. About the Authors
  9. Acknowledgments
  10. About the Reviewers
  11. We Want to Hear from You!
  12. Reader Services
  13. Part I: Physical Networking 101
    1. Chapter 1. The Very Basics
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Reinventing the Wheel
      4. Summary
    2. Chapter 2. A Tale of Two Network Models
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Model Behavior
      4. The OSI Model
      5. The TCP/IP Model
      6. Summary
    3. Chapter 3. Ethernet Networks
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Ethernet
      4. Extending Ethernet Segments: Repeaters, Hubs, and Switches
      5. Summary
    4. Chapter 4. Advanced Layer 2
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Loop Avoidance and Spanning Tree
      4. Link Aggregation
      5. Summary
      6. Reference
    5. Chapter 5. Layer 3
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. The Network Layer
      4. IP Addressing and Subnetting
      5. Network Layer Supporting Applications
      6. Summary
    6. Chapter 6. Converged Infrastructure
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Concepts
      4. Examples
      5. Summary
  14. Part II: Virtual Switching
    1. Chapter 7. How Virtual Switching Differs from Physical Switching
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Physical and Virtual Switch Comparison
      4. Physical Uplinks
      5. Virtual Ports
      6. VLANs
      7. Summary
    2. Chapter 8. vSphere Standard Switch
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. The vSphere Standard Switch
      4. vSwitch Properties
      5. Security
      6. Discovery
      7. Traffic Shaping
      8. NIC Teaming
      9. Hierarchy Overrides
      10. VMkernel Ports
      11. VM Port Groups
      12. Summary
    3. Chapter 9. vSphere Distributed Switch
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction to the vSphere Distributed Switch
      3. Monitoring
      4. Private VLANs
      5. Distributed Port Groups
      6. Traffic Shaping
      7. Load Balancing
      8. Network I/O Control
      9. Summary
    4. Chapter 10. Third Party Switches–1000V
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Integration with vSphere
      4. Virtual Supervisor Module
      5. Virtual Ethernet Module
      6. Advanced Features
      7. Licensed Modes of Operation
      8. Summary
    5. Chapter 11. Lab Scenario
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Building a Virtual Network
      4. Architectural Decisions
      5. Lab Scenario
      6. Summary
    6. Chapter 12. Standard vSwitch Design
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Standard vSwitch Design
      4. Ensuring Quality of Service
      5. Network Adapters
      6. Virtual Machine Traffic
      7. VMkernel Ports
      8. Final Tuning
      9. Configuring Additional vSphere Hosts
      10. Summary
    7. Chapter 13. Distributed vSwitch Design
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Distributed vSwitch Design
      4. Ensuring Quality of Service
      5. Creating the Distributed vSwitch
      6. Network Adapters
      7. Distributed Port Groups for Virtual Machines
      8. Distributed Port Groups for VMkernel Ports
      9. Adding vSphere Hosts
      10. Final Steps
      11. Other Design Considerations
      12. Summary
  15. Part III: You Got Your Storage in My Networking: IP Storage
    1. Chapter 14. iSCSI General Use Cases
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Understanding iSCSI
      4. iSCSI Components
      5. iSCSI Adapters
      6. iSCSI Design
      7. Boot from iSCSI
      8. Summary
    2. Chapter 15. iSCSI Design and Configuration
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. iSCSI Design
      4. vSwitch Configuration
      5. Adding iSCSI Devices
      6. Summary
    3. Chapter 16. NFS General Use Cases
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Understanding NFS
      4. NFS Components
      5. Network Adapters
      6. NFS Design
      7. Summary
    4. Chapter 17. NFS Design and Configuration
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. NFS Design
      4. vSwitch Configuration
      5. Mounting NFS Storage
      6. Summary
  16. Part IV: Other Design Scenarios
    1. Chapter 18. Additional vSwitch Design Scenarios
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Use Case
      4. Two Network Adapters
      5. Four Network Ports
      6. Six Network Ports
      7. Eight Network Adapters
      8. Summary
    2. Chapter 19. Multi-NIC vMotion Architecture
      1. Key Concepts
      2. Introduction
      3. Multi-NIC vMotion Use Cases
      4. Design
      5. Configuring Multi-NIC vMotion
      6. Summary
    3. Appendix A. Networking for VMware Administrators: The VMware User Group
      1. The VMware User Group
  17. Index

Product information

  • Title: Networking for VMware Administrators
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: March 2014
  • Publisher(s): VMware Press
  • ISBN: 9780133511260