From the course: Network Virtualization: SDN Overlay Solutions

Welcome

From the course: Network Virtualization: SDN Overlay Solutions

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Welcome

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- [Presenter] Hello, and welcome to this GNS3 SDN via Overlays Course. I'm David Bombal and I'll be your presenter for this training. There are various versions for software defined networking and one of them is software defined networking via overlays, or virtual networks. In an overlay SDN environment, or a virtual network environment, a virtual layer two network is established across a physical layer three network. Typically, a protocol called VXLAN is used to create a virtual network in software using tunnels that allows VMs on multiple hypervisors to be in the same subnet, even though they are separated by a layer three routed domain. This SDN solution is advocated by companies such as VMware. Their core product for network virtualization is VMware NSX. This kind of solution is aimed at the data center, and you'll probably encounter the term software defined data center, or SDDC. Other companies that advocate this model include Nuage Networks, with their virtualized services platform, and Juniper Contrail. I'm gonna show you some detailed demos using the VSP platform from Nuage Networks, and you'll learn about their virtualized service controller, or VSC, their virtualized service directory, or VSD, and their VRS's. The VRS's are virtual routers and switches running within hypervisors that permit or deny traffic using OpenFlow. They are controlled by a virtual services controller. This is essentially an SDN controller, and you can manage the network using the VSD. This is a very powerful, scalable solution that supports multiple hypervisors, including Xen, KVM, and VMware ESXi. I'll also show you where you can get hands-on practice using NSX with the hands-on labs from VMware. If you work in a data center environment, it's well worth investigating this version of SDN. In summary, an SDN via overlays, or virtual network, or network virtualization environment, is where you create a virtual network overlaid on top of a physical network, typically using VXLAN tunnels. This is an introductory course and starts off slowly, showing you various analogies and reasons to implement this kind of technology in a data center, and then I'll jump into some demos of the Nuage Networks solution and show you where you can get more information on VMware's website.

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