1. NETWORK TRANSFORMATION THROUGH VIRTUALIZATION
Art Center College of Design
Theresa Zix, Vice President, Information Technology
Herman Choi, Network Architect

2. Art Center Intro 2 Locations in Pasadena, CA 4 Groups of Design Study
Industrial, Communication, Design Sciences, Arts & Media
Size
1,500 Students + 3,000 in Public Programs
450 Faculty Staff

4. (South Campus Picture)

5. (Students Working Picture)

6. Original Network (2004) Large Flat Network No Boundaries
Prone to Broadcast Storms and Network Loops
No Physical Infrastructure Redundancy
Inefficient Use of Equipment and Cabling Infrastructure

7. Initial Concerns Lack of Scalability No room for growth and expansion
Lack of Resiliency
Availability was the issue
Lack of Security
Free-for-All environment

8. What is Virtualization?
Abstraction of physical computing resources
Single physical computing resource appears as multiple logical resources
Multiple physical computing resources appear as a single logical resource

9. Solution (2005-2008) Implemented Network Virtualization
Allowed networks to be implemented without physical constraints
No longer constrained by legacy physical networks
Gained flexibility and reliability through efficient use of resources

10. Original Scalability Issues
Legacy network equipment limited scalability and expandability
Deployed multiple physical switches dedicated for different departments
Too many switches deployed
Inefficient use of power and infrastructure

11. Solutions For Scalability Issues (2005)
Virtual LANs (VLANs)
Instead of multiple switches, deployed only one switch
Allocated ports on one switch to specific networks
Lowered power consumption
Used infrastructure more efficiently

12. Solutions For Scalability Issues (2005)
Virtual Trunking Protocols
Allowed use of multiple VLANs to share common physical links
Supported legacy non- routable applications
Extended flexibility of network

13. Solutions For Scalability Issues (2005)
Virtual Etherchannel Links
Ports can be combined and bonded together to increase bandwidth capacity and utilization

14. Solutions For Scalability Issues (2005)
VLAN and Virtual Trunking Protocols were extended to the wireless infrastructure
Simple wireless APs can only support one SSID wireless network
VLANs allowed different SSIDs to propagate across fewer APs

15. Solutions For Scalability Issues (2006)
Virtual Security Devices
Legacy security devices only performed one function per physical box
Split into multiple logical security devices
Firewall services
VPN services
Intrusion Detection services

16. Solutions For Scalability Issues (2008)
Virtual Application Load-Balancing
Legacy load-balancers only worked on one network
Split into multiple logical load-balancers

17. Original Resiliency Issues
Original network did not have redundant network backbone or fiber uplink connections
Routing gateway functionalities were limited to a single routing device

18. Solutions For Resiliency Issues (2005)
Spanning-Tree Protocols
Used redundant uplinks to be simultaneously active
Multiple uplinks can now be utilized more efficiently

19. Solutions For Resiliency Issues (2005)
Virtual Routing Redundancy Protocols
Legacy routing were constrained to physical interfaces and single routing devices
Routing gateway functionality can be spread across multiple routers

20. Original Security Issues
Originally had a large flat network
One large broadcast domain
Highly unstable
Everybody could see one another
Easy for viruses and worms to propagate
No containment or isolation

21. Solutions For Security Issues (2005)
VLANs used to create isolated networks
Dramatically decreased size of broadcast domain
Private VLANs can be created to restrict communication between hosts within the same network

22. Solutions For Security Issues (2008)
Use of Access Control Lists to restrict communication between VLANs - Difficult to scale and maintain
Future Direction - Virtual Routing and Forwarding
Create virtual isolated paths within the same network - Internal VPN
Virtual routers within one physical router

23. Maintain Network Virtualization
Need Monitoring and Visibility
Monitor CPU and Memory Utilization
Monitor Bandwidth Utilization
Monitor Virtual Routing States
Monitor Virtual Spanning-Tree States
SNMP – Preferably version 3
Logging – Monitor Incidents and Errors

24. Server Virtualization
Hot Topic Nowadays
Multiple operating systems or server instances deployed across multiple physical servers
Examples of virtualization software
VMWare
Citrix Xen
Microsoft
Parallels Virtuozzo

25. Benefits of Server Virtualization
Greater flexibility and scalability
Increases reliability and availability
More efficient use of hardware resources
Sounds great!
What’s the problem?
What does this have to do with the network?

26. Server Virtualization Issues
Network Utilization and Capacity Changes
One server not tied to just one physical NIC
Imagine 10 virtual machines sharing the same physical NIC
Virtualization software may only load- balance based on CPU and memory utilization

27. Server Virtualization Issues
Security Management Changes
By default, all virtual machines can see one another
Private VLANs
Host-based Firewalls
Host-based Intrusion Detection
Software-based solutions

28. Server Virtualization Issues
Network Design Changes
Not just a regular server connection
Networking has been extended from network switches to virtual switches inside each server
Same Network Virtualization concepts

29. What Does the Future Hold?
More visibility and monitoring required
More emphasis on network design and deployment of virtual machines
Possible IT Culture Change - Your network and system engineers must work more closely together
Similar to network and voice convergence – Merge technical skills

30. Thank You Art Center College of Design www.artcenter.edu
Theresa Zix
(626)
Herman Choi
(626)