Presenters are Jason Nash (@thejasonnash) & Chris Wahl (@chriswahl)

• Why are you all here? Stuck on Spirit airlines?
• Some intro’s – skipping past the VMware slides.
• Jason likes to shoot skeet, Chris likes big hats
• Free 30 day passes from Pluralsight
• 2014 Deep Dive – 6 use cases – can’t cover it all in 45 minutes
• New 2015 Hotness – 1) Granular network guarantees, 2) Using Multiple TCP/IP Stacks, 3) 100% VDS Fueled Data Center
  • Granular Network Guarantees – NIOC 3.0, Setting Guarantees on virtual machines and DPG’s
  • Using Multiple TCP/IP Stacks – Setup a supported routed vMotion environment, Migrate workloads from one vCenter to another
  • 100% VDS Fueled Data Center – How to protect vCenter Server and other dependencies, toss out the standard vSwitch entirely
• Lots of the audience using vDS today already
• New in vSphere 6.0
  • NIOC 3.0
  • Multicast (IGMP) Snooping
  • Multiple TCP/IP Stack for vMotion
• What about the Cisco Nexus 1000V?
  • VMware no longer sells the Nexus 1000V
  • Nexus 1000V is still supported in vSphere 6.0 – needs 5.2(1)SV3(1.4) or later
  • AVS Mode = not supported – will likely get there soon…
  • Official Nexus 1000V official End of Availability – http://www.vmware.com/products/cisco-nexus-1000V
  • IBM 5000V – no one using it
• Showing all the upgrade paths to get to VDS – need to think about the enhanced LACP mode
• NIOC 3.0 – “Learn how to do blah blah blah” – Tips and caveats…
  • More guardrails – less fluidity in the data center.
  • The best designs are simple – don’t do it unless you need it.
  • Are you solving a problem? Don’t turn nerd knobs unless solving a specific problem
• Traffic Placement Engine – read the slide. 😉
• Bandwidth Admission Control
• Related Functionality –
• Live Demo Time!
  • Some things went away with NIOC version 3.
  • Can’t mark traffic classes the same way.
  • Also changes in how network resource pools work – more similar to shares hierarchy.
  • If have these things you can’t upgrade but fixing some of these things can be disruptive (will blip the ports on the vDS).
  • Can’t see NIOC version – oh yes you can.
  • Only Scott Lowe has 40 Gig switches at home.
  • This is like Jason Nash doing a live Pluralsight course with comic relief from Chris Wahl – they should do this format for their Pluralsight course.
  • Can do reservations on a per VM basis
  • Often design NIOC groups on application or tier (gold, silver, etc.)
  • If doing it per VM, tag the virtual machine (with an actual vCenter tag) so easier to find it later
  • Don’t get to fancy with the uplinks and splitting them up.
• Multiple TCP/IP Stacks
  • previously couldn’t have different default gateways – only first came in in 5.5
  • now it’s in the UI with 6.0 – vMotion is biggest use case along with Storage vMotions
  • this is what allows cross-switch vMotion and cross-vCenter vMotion
  • Congestion Control Algorithms – New Reno & CUBIC
    • CUBIC only built for high speed long distance (coast to coast) – don’t change it unless VMware tells you to.
  • Custom Stacks & vxlan – don’t use it unless need it
• Cross vSwitch vMotion
  • vDS to vSS is not supported – vDS includes metadata that vSS doesn’t support
  • Doesn’t change IP address
  • Can do any combo except vDS to vSS
  • Don’t forget about Layer 2 – this won’t change your IP #….seriously don’t forget that.
• Cross vCenter vMotion
  • could do this before but was really cumbersome.
  • Supports shared or shared nothing migrations (if don’t want to buy VPLEX).
  • Even migrates things such as HR, DRS, Alarms, Events
  • Must be in the same SSO domain
  • This is NOT how you go from 5.5 to 6.0
• Other Requirements
  • Must be Enterprise Plus
  • Must be in Enhanced Link Mode
  • Time sync is super critical
• Long Distance vMotion
  • Can now vMotion across links up to *150ms* of latency – no more 10ms limit!
  • Keep in mind this can affect VM performance – do this in non-peak hours.
  • Stretching Layer 2 has always been difficult and usually not a great idea.
  • If a really busy VM, will we ever be able to stun the VM successfully long enough?
• Protecting vCenter with a vDS
  • Can use vDS for everything – but do have to protect vCenter more now.
• What’s ephemeral? Only half the audience knows…
• Showing how can shut down vCenter with the thick client on an ESXi host and change its port group.
• Now into the Q&A…
  • People hoarding the stage for the Pluralsight cards but no questions.
  • Kind of surprised no questions.

That’s a wrap!