Hi Rob,
A first crack at your questions:
- Does the 1000v have any dependence or prerequisites on existing vSwitch or DVS configuration?
The 1000v will create a new DVS object on the VC. You can create port-profiles on the VSM which show up as portgroups on this new DVS object. You can then migrate your existing VMs to these port profile backed portgroups.
- Does the 1000v totally replace the existing vSwitch(s)/DVS functionality, and is this independent of the vSwitch/DVS config?
The 1000v uses the DVS api on vCenter, but all config on the DVS is independent. The Nexus 1000V VSM will manage all of the config for its DVS.
- Can u have all 3 switch types( vSwitch/DVS/Nexus 1000v) running in the same environment?
Yes you can, however, the advantage of moving all network contact points to a DVS gives you a single point of contact / management point for the virtual network. In the Nexus 1000V case, this point of contact for the network admin is the VSM.
- we have heard things about 'orphan' DVS switches etc post Nexus install, and that kinda puts lots of questions in our minds as to what actually happens when you install the Nexus 1000v ?
The Nexus 1000V has two main components:
VSM: Virtual Supervisor Module (the control plane)
VEM: Virtual Ethernet Module (package installed on the 1000V managed ESX/ESXi hosts)
The basic flow of the Nexus 1000V install is:
- Install Nexus 1000V VSM VM (either standalone or a HA pair)
- Register VSM Extension Plugin Certificate in vCenter
- Connect VSM to vCenter (this creates the DVS object which is managed/owned by the VSMs Extension Certificate)
- Install VEM modules on hosts
- Add hosts to DVS
<At this point, your modules should be up and show in the VSM>
The orphaned DVS case only happens if the user deletes the VSM which has already created a DVS object on vCenter. To reclaim this DVS which no longer has a VSM (what we refer to as an orphaned DVS), you have to follow the steps in the other threads which you read. It is basically an error recovery scenario.
Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any confusions and we'll be glad to help.
Cheers,
Sachin
