Current Trends in DC Networking - VXLAN Overview

The data center has two main struggles when it comes to networking.

1. Loop free layer two by sacrificing half the links.
2. VM or workload mobility anywhere at any time.

Smaller shops might be fine with giving up a few links, but extending a L2 domain is asking for trouble.  Larger shops need every link they can get and demand the flexibility to move a VM anywhere. So we are being forced down a road of L2 everywhere. How do we do it?

Our current model is broken, or better said, it's out dated. We need a technology that is adaptable to the movement of the application. This will take  some time...

Right now though, we have VMs needing to move within pods or zones or even DCs. Yup and application teams still require L2 domains between all this mess. So how do we make everyone happy?

Well... VXLAN

Its not the protocol we need but its the protocol we deserve.

ONUG Spring 2016

I just returned home from ONUG Spring 2016 in Mountain View CA. I was lucky enough to be invited by my buddies Steven and Tom of Tech Field Day. More and more people are talking about ONUG over and WOOT I was finally able to attend!

I'm blogging my thoughts on the event in hopes to encourage more people and companies to attend and get involved with the ONUG community. They are doing great work and its only going to get better!

Current Trends in DC Networking Series

Im kicking off a new series on various DC networking trends. All of these are technologies that are hot right now and I've been wanting to dig into deeper.

I'm not sure how this series will flow as Im jumping in and blogging as I go. The series will be structured from the ground up starting with the network infrastructure and progressing as we build out the DC.

Here is my base idea on organizing topics. As always, feed back and topic suggestions are welcome.

1: VXLAN Leaf/Spine (Arista)
2: VXLAN Leaf/Spine (Cumulus)
3: Automate Leaf/Spine Deployment w/ Ansible
4: Open vSwitch
5: CoreOS Deployment
6: CoreOS and Docker Containers
7: Automate CoreOS/Container deployment
8: Automate it all!

Id love to throw OpenStack into the mix but there is a lot there and it might need its own series. Im not sure we will see how this goes.

Alright, let the fun begin!!

First up will be VXLAN Leaf/Spine with Arista vEOS