This is the first of a series of Blue Gears blogs on virtual networking written by Edward L. Haletky aka Texiwill on the VMware Communities Forums who specializes in Virtualization Security, Networking, and programming. All the items I will address within this blog are taken from the VMware Communities Forums. Look for posts on the top 10 common vNetworking issues, steps to configure iSCSI or NAS based networking, as well as suggestions on which networks are safe to combine. Now some technical notes. There are at least 5 networks you need to consider when using Virtualization.
- Remote Access Network (HP ILO/Dell DRAC/etc.)
- Administrative or Management Network
- VMotion/SVMotion/LiveMigration Network
- DataStore Networks
- iSCSI Network
- NFS (NAS) Network
- Fibre Channel SAN Network (FC over Ethernet is here)
- Production Virtual Machine Network
- DMZ Virtual Machine Network
- Classified Virtual Machine Network
- Backup Network
- Monitoring Network
There are a host of others but these are the most common categories used today. What does the use of these networks mean in the realm of virtual networks and where do they meet the physical world. That will be the subject of other blogs. Virtualization expert Edward L. Haletky is the author of “VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers,” Pearson Education (2008.) He recently left Hewlett-Packard, where he worked in the Virtualization, Linux, and High-Performance Technical Computing teams. Haletky owns AstroArch Consulting, Inc., providing virtualization, security, network consulting, and development. Haletky is also a champion and moderator for the VMware Communities Forums, providing answers to security and configuration questions.
