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Product Overview
The Cisco Nexus™ 1000V virtual machine access switch is an intelligent software switch implementation for VMware ESX environments. Running inside of the VMware ESX hypervisor, the Cisco Nexus 1000V supports Cisco® VN-Link server virtualization technology, providing
• Policy-based virtual machine (VM) connectivity
• Mobile VM security and network policy, and
• Non-disruptive operational model for your server virtualization, and networking teams.
When server virtualization is deployed in the data center, virtual servers typically are not managed the same way as physical servers. Server virtualization is treated as a special deployment, leading to longer deployment time with a greater degree of coordination among server, network, storage, and security administrators. But with the Cisco Nexus 1000V you can have a consistent networking feature set and provisioning process all the way from the VM to the access, aggregation, and core switches. Your virtual servers can use the same network configuration, security policy, tools, and operational models as physical servers. Virtualization administrators can leverage predefined network policy that follows the nomadic VM and focus on virtual machine administration. This comprehensive set of capabilities helps you to deploy server virtualization faster and realize its benefits sooner.
Developed in close collaboration with VMware, the Cisco Nexus 1000V is fully integrated with VMware Virtual Infrastructure, including VMware Virtual Center, VMware ESX, and ESXi. You can use the Cisco Nexus 1000V to manage your VM connectivity with confidence in the integrity of the server virtualization infrastructure.
Product Architecture
The Cisco Nexus 1000V switch has two major components, the Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM) that executes inside the hypervisor and the external Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM) that manages the VEMs (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Cisco Nexus 1000V Architecture
Virtual Ethernet Module
The Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Ethernet Module executes as part of the VMware ESX or ESXi kernel and replaces the VMware Virtual Switch functionality. The VEM leverages the VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch API, which was developed jointly by Cisco and VMware, to provide advanced networking capability to virtual machines. This level of integration ensures that the Cisco Nexus 1000V is fully aware of all the server virtualization events, such as VMware VMotion and Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS). The VEM takes configuration information from the Virtual Supervisor Module and performs advanced switching functions:
• Quality of service (QoS)
• Security: Private VLAN, access control lists, Cisco TrustSec architecture
• Monitoring: NetFlow, SPAN, ERSPAN
In the event of loss of communication with the Virtual Supervisor Module, the VEM has Nonstop Forwarding capability to continue to switch traffic based on last known configuration. In short, the VEM provides advanced switching with data-center reliability for the server virtualization environment.
Virtual Supervisor Module
The Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Supervisor Module controls multiple VEMs as one logical modular switch. Instead of physical line card modules, the Virtual Supervisor Module supports VEMs running in software inside servers. Configurations are performed through the Virtual Supervisor Module and automatically propagated to the VEMs. Instead of configuring soft switches inside the hypervisor on one host at a time, administrators can define configurations for immediate use on all VEMs being managed by the Virtual Supervisor Module.
By using the capabilities of Cisco NX-OS, the Cisco Nexus 1000V provides these benefits:
• Flexibility and scalability: Configuration of ports by category enables the solution to scale to a large number of ports. Common software can run all areas of the data center network, including LAN and storage area networks.
• High availability: Synchronized, redundant supervisors enable rapid, stateful failover.
• Manageability: Access the Cisco Nexus 1000V through the Cisco command-line interface (CLI), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), and XML API.
Like the rest of the Cisco Nexus family, the Cisco Nexus 1000V can also be managed using the comprehensive tools of Cisco Data Center Network Manager. In addition, Cisco VFrame Data Center can control the Cisco Nexus 1000V for complete orchestration of the virtualized data center.
The Virtual Supervisor Module is also integrated with VMware Virtual Center so that the virtualization administrator can take advantage of the network configuration in the Cisco Nexus 1000V.
Features and Benefits
The Cisco Nexus 1000V gives you a common management model for both physical and virtual infrastructures through Cisco VN-Link technology that includes policy-based VM connectivity; mobility of VM security and network properties; and a non-disruptive operational model.
Policy-Based VM Connectivity: To complement the ease of creating and provisioning VMs, the Cisco Nexus 1000V includes the Port Profiles feature to address the dynamic nature of server virtualization from the network's perspective (Figure 2). Port Profiles enable you to define VM network policies for different types or classes of VMs, then apply them through VMware's Virtual Center GUI for transparent provisioning of network resources. Port Profiles are a scalable mechanism to configure networks with large numbers of VMs.
Figure 2. Policy-based VM Connectivity
Mobility of VM Security and Network Properties: Network and security policies defined in the Port Profile follow the VM throughout its lifecycle whether it is being migrated from one server to another (Figure 3), suspended, hibernated, or restarted. In addition to migrating the policy, the Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Supervisor Module also moves the VM's network state, such as the port counters. VMs participating in traffic monitoring activities, such as Cisco NetFlow or ERSPAN, can continue these activities uninterrupted by VMotion operations. When a Port Profile is updated, the Cisco Nexus 1000V automatically provides live updates to all the ports using that Port Profile. With the ability to migrate network and security policies through VMotion, regulatory compliance is much easier to enforce, because the security policy is defined in the same way as physical servers and constantly enforced by the Cisco Nexus 1000V.
Figure 3. Mobility of Network and Security Properties
Non-Disruptive Operational Model: Because of its close integration with VMware Virtual Center, the Cisco Nexus 1000V allows virtualization administrators to continue using VMware tools to provision VMs. At the same time, network administrators can provision and operate the VM network the same way they do the physical network using Cisco CLI, SNMP, and XML API along with tools such as ERSPAN and NetFlow. While both teams work independently, using familiar tools, the Cisco Nexus 1000V enforces consistent configuration and policy throughout the server virtualization environment. This level of integration lowers the cost of ownership while supporting various organizational boundaries among server, network, security, and storage teams.
Inside VMware Virtual Center, VMs are configured as before. Instead of having the network configuration being defined in Virtual Center, Port Profiles defined on the Cisco Nexus 1000V Supervisor are displayed inside Virtual Center as Port Groups. Virtualization administrators can take advantage of preconfigured Port Groups and focus on VM management, while network administrators can use Port Profiles to configure large number of ports. Together, both teams can deploy server virtualization more efficiently and with lower operational cost.
These and other features and benefits of the Cisco Nexus 1000V are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Cisco Nexus 1000V Features and Benefits
System Specification
• Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Supervisor Module: Virtual appliance in VMDK or ISO image, supports up to 64 VMware ESX or ESXi
• Supports planned future version of VMware Virtual Infrastructure
For More Information
For additional information about the Cisco Nexus 1000V, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/datacenter.
For additional information about Cisco NX-OS, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/nxos.
For more information about Cisco Data Center Network Manager, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/dcnm.
For more information about Cisco VFrame Data Center, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/vframe.