VXLAN Technical Deep Dive

Overall rating: 4.78 Instructor: 4.80 Materials: 4.84 more …

VXLAN was the first MAC-over-IP overlay virtual networking technology that could be used to implement large-scale layer-2 multi-tenant virtual networking solutions within the VMware’s vSphere ecosystem.

Since its introduction in 2011 various VXLAN implementations introduced scalable control plane, hardware gateways, and standardized scale-out architectures based on BGP MPLS Ethernet VPN (EVPN). This webinar describes:

  • The basics of VXLAN and Geneve;
  • VXLAN integration with the layer-3 data center network core;
  • Benefits and drawbacks of VXLAN and Geneve versus early competitors (NVGRE and STT);
  • VXLAN and Geneve implementations in hypervisors switches;
  • Large-scale VXLAN solutions, including controller-based VXLAN networks and EVPN-based scale-out architectures;
  • Hardware VXLAN gateways and VLAN-to-VXLAN integration options;
  • Use of VXLAN in data center fabrics.

Availability

This webinar is part of Network Virtualization roadmap and accessible with standard subscription

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Contents

The webinar covers the following topics:

  • The overview of VXLAN and Geneve technology;
  • VXLAN data plane
  • Emulating Ethernet flooding with IP multicast or ingress replication
  • Data plane deployment guidelines
  • Control plane implementations for VXLAN networks
  • VXLAN software and hardware gateways and their integration with VXLAN controllers;
  • VXLAN as transport method in data center fabrics.

VXLAN Technology Overview

This section describes the VXLAN architectural model, packet formats and forwarding principles, including the use of IP multicast to emulate layer-2 flooding.

The design guidelines presented in this section will help you integrate VXLAN-based virtual networking solutions with large-scale IP-based data center networks.

Emulating Ethernet Flooding

Initial VXLAN implementations used IP multicast to establish MAC-to-VTEP mappings in hypervisor virtual switches. That approach was quickly supplemented with ingress replication capabilities and hybrid solutions like hierarchical flooding used in VMware NSX.

Data Plane Deployment Guidelines

This section discussed the typical VXLAN deployment considerations including:

  • MTU challenges
  • High-availability implementations with multiple server uplinks
  • Load balancing across physical data center fabric
  • Securing the transport network
  • IP multicast guidelines

Control Plane for VXLAN Networks

VXLAN is a data plane technology that has to be augmented with a control plane to build MAC-to-VTEP mappings and flooding trees. This section describes most common control plane implementations including:

  • No control plane (dynamic MAC learning)
  • Distributed control plane using EVPN
  • Controller-based VXLAN networks including VMware NSX-T, Nuage VSP and Juniper Contrail
  • Scale-out solutions including VMware NSX-T federation and multi-pod/multi-site Cisco ACI deployments

VXLAN Gateways

VXLAN segments are completely isolated from the rest of the network. You need gateway functionality if you want to link a VXLAN segment with a traditional VLAN or insert network services (routing, firewalling or load balancing) between a VXLAN segment and the rest of the network.

This section lists most common gateway solutions, from VM-based products to hardware gateways, and describes various design scenarios that you can use to implement large-scale multi-tenant private- or public cloud solutions.

VXLAN Use in Data Center Fabrics

VXLAN implemented in forwarding hardware on leaf switches is commonly used together with EVPN to build large-scale layer-2 data center fabrics. VXLAN is also a fundamental building block of proprietary solutions like Cisco ACI. This section describes the benefits and limitations of VXLAN-based layer-2 transport fabrics, including routing in and out of VXLAN tunnels (RIOT).

Happy Campers

About the webinar

Great Session Ivan, as usual!

Pierre-Louis Gingembre
Well done! Ivan really has his finger on the pulse of networking today in a landscape that is greatly changing.
Hooker Heggestad
This webinar gets right to the main point of what VXLAN provides and then the details on how it works. No better way to quickly get up to speed.
Tom Zeller
Very well covered topic with enough technical details and explanations.
Igor Pudar

About the materials

Keep them coming!
Hooker Heggestad

The Author

Ivan PepelnjakIvan Pepelnjak, CCIE#1354 Emeritus, is an independent network architect, book author, blogger and regular speaker at industry events like Interop, RIPE and regional NOG meetings. He has been designing and implementing large-scale service provider and enterprise networks since 1990, and is currently using his expertise to help multinational enterprises and large cloud- and service providers design next-generation data center and cloud infrastructure using Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) approaches and technologies.

Ivan is the author of several books covering data center technologies, highly praised webinars, and dozens of data center and cloud-related technical articles published on his blog.

More about Ivan Pepelnjak

Target Audience

If part of your daily job includes VMware network connectivity, OpenStack or IaaS infrastructure, be it on the server or networking side, you simply have to attend this webinar, regardless of whether you’re a network architect, network designer, or an implementation guru.

Prerequisite knowledge

This webinar assumes familiarity with virtual networking concepts and VMware networking solutions, and basic understanding of IP routing and IP multicast. Watching Cloud Networking and Overlay Virtual Networking before attending this webinar will also help you better understand the technical details.

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