Simplify VMware vSphere* 4 Networking with Intel Ethernet 10 Gigabit Server Adapters

The Foundation of Virtualization
WHITEPAPER
4
The BenefiTs of virTualizaTion
Come wiTh limiTaTions
The original value proposition embraced by many organizations when
they first considered virtualizing their data centers still holds. By consoli-
dating servers, they sought to take optimal advantage of the growing
headroom from increasingly powerful servers while also reducing infra-
structure requirements. The key benefits these organizations sought to
derive included the following:
•Eciency and simplicity. Having fewer physical hosts in the
data center creates a simpler topology that can be more
eectively managed.
•Lower capital costs. Buying smaller numbers of servers and cutting
the requirements for the supporting infrastructure, such as switches,
racks, and cables, potentially delivers very large capital savings.
•Reduced operating expenses. Lower power consumption and
cooling requirements combined with greater agility from simpli-
fied provisioning and novel usage models such as automated load
balancing can cut day-to-day costs.
Unfortunately, the success achieved by many organizations in attaining
these benefits is limited by the complexity that has arisen from network-
ing virtualized servers with GbE.
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-
tional ports as demand for bandwidth increases. These ports are often
installed in pairs to provide network failover, doubling the number of
ports required per host. As a result, the number of network ports has a
tendency to become bloated, leading to excessive complexity.
This practice came about in large part because many administrators
did not fully understand or have experience with server virtualization.
The following factors also played a role:
•Physical server network connection paradigms were extended
to virtual infrastructures, leading to the use of separate physical
connections to segment trac and provide required bandwidth.
•Previous VMware versions required a dedicated connection for
virtual machines (VMs) and for each of multiple trac types, such
as VM trac, service console connections, IP storage, VMware
VMotion,* and so on.
•Security procedures have often led network administrators to
physically segregate trac onto separate ports since 802.1Q
trunking to the host was not allowed and was reserved for
switch-to-switch trac.
In many cases, hosts must have as many as eight or more GbE network
ports to satisfy these requirements. As shown in Figure 1, several port
groups are configured to support the various networking functions
and application groupings, and in turn each port group is supplied with
one or more physical connections. Virtual LAN (VLAN) tags may be
implemented on these port groups as well.
Advances in both Intel
®
Ethernet and vSphere* allow dramatic
simplification of the environment without compromising areas
such as security and trac segmentation.