It was planned to have a discussion around L2 Data Centre connection the VMworld in Copenhagen but Scott and I could not meetup. So we recorded this podcast to start talking about some of the issues, technology and solutions. I’m not sure that we have all the technology or knowledge in place, so keep watching for more discussions in the future.

Because the recording lasted for a hour and a half, we have split the show into two parts. This is Part 1 – Layer 2 Data Centre Interconnection where we talk about the problems, challenges. Next week we go into more esoteric topics on vCloud networking, OTV, VEPA and network appliances as virtual machines.

Guests

Scott Lowe http://blog.scottlowe.org Ivan Pepelnjak http://blog.ioshints.info @ioshints

Layer 2 Data Centre Interconnect – open discussion

• The challenges of extending L2 DCI network betweens sites.
• Outlining the threats of large Layer 2 spaces in terms of network vulnerability.
• quick review of vMotion traffic and its requirements.
• Reviewing the impact of fault domains and L2 VLAN space as uncontrollabl
• Itís all about the application.
• Latency, latency and the impact on vMotion switchover.
• Gregís ariticle on the Traffic Trombone and Ivanís extensions to it.
• Itís worth remembering that Network Load Balancers can be more effective than using vMotion is certain use cases.
• vMotion is not for unplanned outages or DR. More for planned outages or possibly workload balancing.
• Debating whether we are able to QoS L2 traffic when flowing between data centers thus answering the question about guaranteeing levels of service for multiple hosts in a VLAN.
• Some humour on Pseudowire over MPLS over GRE over IP. Butís its actually real.
• Some review on the F5 EtherIP technology and whether itís relevant to the solution.

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