Five major improvements to Hyper-V vswitch

Hyper-V vswitches have been significantly improved in Windows Server 2012 without additional costs. The following are five major improvements to Hyper-V vswitch expansion.

1. in Windows Server 2012, Cisco switches can be used to replace Hyper-V vswitches.

It may not be appropriate to replace the word here, but you must be able to fully expand the vswitch. In Windows Server 2012, The Nexus V vswitch launched by Cisco can be installed with the Hyper-V vswitch and can be fully managed, switches that comply with standards and carry the console, and even support software defined network (SDN) and Cisco open network environments. At this point, it can compete with its rival VMware, but you need to pay extra fees. You can obtain this feature through a license with the built-in underlying operating system of Hyper-V.

2. Three extensions of vswitch

Third parties and internal development teams can create switch extensions to expand the functions of vswitches, just like Cisco. The first is the capture extension, which can read and check traffic, but cannot modify or delete data packets.

The second type is filter extension, which checks and reads traffic and directly discards, inserts, and modifies data packets in the data transmission stream. Firewall extension of the Virtual Switch usually does not use this type of filter.

The last type is forwarding extension, which can modify the destination of the data packet and capture and filter traffic. Each different extension function is associated with other extension functions.

3. Support for access control list on Scalable Switches

For the deployment of Multi-tenant environments, the support of the access control list becomes very valuable, especially when a group of identical machines host virtual machines (VMS) of different users, or the Organization requires access rules similar to the Chinese firewall, and data and access needs to be isolated. Now we can use the Hyper-V virtual network to implement security functions only on physical switches and network security devices.

Hyper-V vswitches can filter port traffic based on IP addresses or CIDR blocks, identify specific virtual NICs through MAC addresses, and ensure network isolation. This also applies to network isolation or private VLAN functions, allowing administrators to establish tenant network isolation by protecting the traffic security of individual VLANs in a virtual network.

4. The new Trunking tool in the Hyper-V vswitch

In Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V vswitch, a new function can route all data packets. This function runs in a Virtual Machine (like an Appliance ), as a vswitch extension (as described above) or as a service on the hypervisor host. The specified Monitoring Port copies traffic to the specified virtual machine.

When you set a given vswitch port to "relay mode", all traffic on the virtual network will be routed to the specified virtual machine, make all traffic pass through this virtual machine before arriving at the destination. You can also create a capture extension instance on the vswitch to copy traffic to the specified virtual machine for inspection or analysis. You can set another extension to transmit traffic to another target network through a tunnel.

5. Use the Hyper-V Switch extension as an independent device in System Center 2012.

If you have deployed System Center 2012 SP1, you can add a vswitch extension to the SCVMM console to centrally monitor and manage the settings of virtual machines and vswitches in the console, features and functions. You can also coordinate with a virtual switch extension vendor such as Cisco for unified management, but you must first obtain the corresponding software from the supplier, install it on the SCVMM server and restart the service.