Re: [Xen-users] Openvswitch

["Nick Couchman" <Nick.Couchman@xxxxxxxxx>]

>>> On 2010/05/19 at 07:16, "Jonathan Tripathy" <jonnyt@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
> Hi Everyone,
>  
> Is Openvswitch, which is now in XCP and Xenserver, just a Xen-alternative to 
> VMWare's fancy virtual switches?
>  
> For example, can I create virtual switches and VLANs "inside" the Xen host?
>  
> One thing that was nice about VMWare, was that you could create your "own 
> world" inside the box, regarding network layout.
>  

Yes, openvswitch is very similar to VMware's Cisco Nexus switch provided with 
the enterprise-level versions of vSphere.  It allows you to create a full, 
virtual switch inside your host, rather than relying on things like dom0 bridge 
support to accomplish domU network access.  It has several advantages: remote 
administration (ability to remotely configure your switch from a central 
location), remote monitoring (sFlow/NetFlow support), port mirroring (useful 
instead of monitoring all of the traffic on a bridge), and quite a bit more.  
Additionally, openvswitch is an "openflow" switch, which means you can set up 
an openflow controller machine (physical or domU) that will actually do all of 
the traffic directing for your virtual network.

You can create your "own world" inside a box without openvswitch or Cisco 
Nexus.  On Xen, you can create a local bridge that has no connectivity to a 
physical ethernet interface, and connect your domUs to that bridge.  This gives 
you an isolated network on which you can test stuff.  The same thing can be 
done with VMware.  You don't need a virtual switch on either platform to 
accomplish this.

-Nick




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