This post is intended to address two of the VCP-NV objectives, namely:
- Differentiate VMware Network and Security Technologies
- Contrast Physical and Virtual Network Technologies
My interpretation of these objectives are that there should be an understanding of the network and security technologies that you are likely to come across when working with NSX and vSphere in general. With this in mind, this post will look at the networking technologies that are used in vSphere and vCloud infrastructures. Rather that re-inventing the wheel/reproducing content, I’ll provide links to the relevant VMware documentation as necessary.
vSphere Networking Technologies
- vSphere Standard vSwitches
- vSphere Distributed vSwitches
These are the core virtual switch technologies in vSphere, and are documented in the vSphere Networking Guide. There are also a number of articles on this site looking at configuring vSphere networking features, written whilst I was going through the vcap-dca objectives.
vCloud Networking and Security Technologies
Along with the networking features built into the vSphere platform, additional networking functionality is made available though the vCloud suite, as described here and briefly summarised below:
- Firewall – Stateful inspection firewall that can be applied either at the perimeter of the virtual data center or at the virtual network interface card (vNIC) level.
- VPN – Industry-standard IPsec and SSL VPN capabilities that securely extend the virtual data center.
- Load balancer – A virtual-appliance–based load balancer to scale application delivery without the need for dedicated hardware.
- VXLAN – Technology that, along with VMware vSphere Distributed Switch, creates Layer 2 logical networks across noncontiguous clusters or pods without the need for VLANs
- vCloud Ecosystem Framework
Useful Links and Resources
https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vcns/vmware-vcloud-networking-and-security-overview.pdf