Interop network goes all-out virtual

The monster network that powers the Interop Las Vegas show has joined the virtual age. For the first time, network engineers who build the world's largest temporary network and dismantle it a week later are going with an almost totally virtualized server environment, according to network architect Geoff Horne.

Click to see: Network architect Geoff Horne

Last year Horne recalls his team pulling 20 to 25 servers off the racks after the show. This year practically every show function will be run on just one HP BladeSystem c7000 Enclosure, which is being virtualized using VMware ESX Server. On Tuesday morning, Horne was running more than 60 virtual machines on the BladeSystem, the virtual equivalent of a full rack. VMware can potentially run 32 virtual machines per blade. The InteropNet actually has two BladeSystem arrays, each with 14 blades. Only one of the arrays was in use, but if both were pushed to their full capacity Horne could run 896 virtual machines, or the virtual equivalent of 14 full-height racks, he says.   

The impetus is power savings and the flexibility to spin up new virtual machines as often as necessary.

"Cloning machines is trivial [with VMware]," Horne says.

Some vendors who donate equipment to the temporary network, known as the InteropNet, brought their own physical servers. But Horne is a stickler.

"If anyone had hardware we pretty much yanked it out and said ‘no, you're going virtual," he says.

Horne and his team made exceptions for two servers that support Digium products, because they needed special PCI cards. Every other server is a virtual one running on the HP blade system.

Horne, who volunteers for the InteropNet and spends the rest of the year as a network design consultant, went through a learning curve because he doesn't have a ton of experience with virtualization.

"It's the first time I've used it on an array this big," he says. "I wanted to do it for a long time. [At Interop] I had the power to say 'guys, I'm banning hardware.' If you go into an enterprise, it's not easy to do that."

Though Horne and his team quickly got the hang of it, learning how to manage virtual machines was initially a challenge.

Fortunately, a VMware technician on-site helped them through the roadblocks.

"It's weird for a lot of network guys. We're used to plugs and cables," Horne says. "You have to map what you did physically to what you do virtually."

The InteropNet is composed of vendor-donated equipment and software, about half of which is technology in alpha or beta and not yet generally available. The total value of donated equipment last year was nearly $10 million, and it's "easily that much" again this year, Horne says.

There might be some savings on the power bill, though. Besides virtualization, Horne and team have increased use of monitoring and cut usage of fans and energy hogs.

"We've got monitoring in every single switch and rack," Horne says. "We've cut back on heavy gear and optimized power supplies."

About 100 people, mostly volunteers, work on the InteropNet, delivering connectivity to 400 booths, 50 conference and meeting areas, and more than 20,000 attendees and exhibitors. There are at least 50 wireless access points and 1,600 KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) ports, Horne says.