Prerequisite: None
Jumping from physical to virtual adds ridiculous complexity to your server networking. While vSphere comes equipped with a set of useful controls for configuring VM networking, actually selecting the right options isn’t always obvious. Further, virtualization itself can force you the virtual admin to also become a network admin, requiring an entirely new set of skills. In Greg Shields’ second session on becoming an ESXpert, he outlines the right and wrong ways to configure ESX and vSphere networking. He’ll show you the useful properties of ESX’s Virtual Switches along with their not-well-known limitations. He’ll discuss the use of VLANs, external switch tagging versus virtual switch tagging, the role of virtual firewalls and intra-ESX networking, as well as where VMware’s advanced Distributed Virtual Switches and Nexus Virtual Switches come in handy.