Intercloud Nexus 1000v for VMWare

[mitcheaves]

I'm starting to setup the Nexus1k InterCloud for VMWare. One of the requirements I'm not quite clear on is weather VMWare Enterprise Plus is required. The requirements document state a VM vSwitch. In my mind it could mean standard instead of distributed (not requiring plus). Can anyone answer if InterClould required VMWare with Enterprise Plus? Thanks.

[stormrunner2]

The switch they are talking about is a 3rd party version of the Distributed vSwitch.  Per that requirement (vSphere 5 version comparison: http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/compare-editions.html) Enterprise Plus is required to support Cisco 1000v.

Cisco 1000v Requirement:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9902/qa_c67-556624.html

I hope that helps,

Scott B.

[Robert Burns]

All 3rd Party Switches and/or any distributed switches (from Vmware or Cisco) require the Enterprise+ license.

Robert

[mitcheaves]

Thanks for the reply Roberbur. Understood 3rd party and/or distributed switching in ESX requires Enterprise+. However I'm not sure InterCloud interacts with the switch itself, just vCenter. So, I'm still unclear if Cisco InterCloud requires Enterprise Plus. Thanks.

[Robert Burns]

Since Intercloud uses the 1000v, you need the Ent+ license.

Robert

[mitcheaves]

Once again thanks for the reply.  Its clear in documentation that Nexus 1000V is not required. What is not clear is weather InterClound requires VMWare Standard or Distributed vSwitch. If the standard is suppored then Enterprise+ is NOT required. Thanks.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus1000/InterCloud/sw/5_2_1_I_C_1_1_1/install_upgrade/guide/b_Cisco_Nexus_1000V_InterCloud_Installation_Guide_Release_5_2_1_IC_1_1_1_chapter_010.html#concept_D9D736D41EFC469BB9AEBDEF6AD7824F

As stated in the Installing Cisco Nexus 1000V InterCloud

Guidelines and Limitations

• The Cisco Nexus 1000V or VMware vSwitch is already installed in the enterprise.

http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/cisco-launches-nexus-1000v-intercloud-part-3/

And also stated in the blog entry

In fact, Nexus 1000V InterCloud, despite the name, will support most virtual networking infrastructures, even if there are no Nexus 1000V virtual switches present. You may be using VMware’s vSwitch

[asirikan@cisco.com · Accepted solution]

Hi Mitch Eaves,

Your understanding is right.  If you are deploying the Intercloud Components like - InterCloud VSM, CPNSC,  and the Intercloud Extender (ICX) on the host using Vswitch, then you don't need Enterprise+ license for that host.

You need the Enteprise+ License of Vmware if you are using using N1K/VDS instead of Vswitch for deploying the above components.

Nexus 1000v Intercloud as such has no dependency on the Vmware Enterprise+ License.  The Enterprise Plus License is used for the enterprise VSM which can be used to host the intercloud component -vm's mentioned above.

Hope this helps.

[Rafael Guedes de Souza]

I'm quite new to N1K InterCloud, so I've some basic questions, mainly about the the service (VM) migration between the Enterprise and the Cloud Provider.

During the migration the VMDK is copied to AWS? So are there some need to storage extension to the cloud?

The machine is migrated on-line or it's restarted on AWS?

What about putting back the machine to Enterprise? All the VMDK is copied or just the changed "blocks"?

Thanks in advance for helping!

[admin11111]

Hi Rafeal,

Since the previous thread was answered and closed, i would recommend starting a new thread for your query.

Anyway, here are the answers to your questions.

1) During the Migration of a VM from enterprise to Cloud, the vm is convered from vmware format to AMI format and copied onto the cloud.  The Storage used here would be the Amazon EBS/S3 based storage. 

2) In the current release, on-line migration is not supported.  The VM on the enterprise is powered off, migrated to the cloud, and then powered-on on the AWS. So it is like cold/offline migration.

3) When the VM is being migrated to the cloud, the user has the option to still retain the enterprise VM or delete the enterprise VM.   But in this release, there is no support for bringing back the migrated vm back from cloud to the enterprise.

Hope this answers your queries.

Regards,

Anil Kumar

[asirikan@cisco.com]

Hi Rafeal,

Since the original thread is answered, i would recommend starting a new thread for new queries.

Anyway please find  my answers

1) Yes. During the migration of a VM from enterprise to cloud, it is converted from vmdk on vmware to AMI format and amazon, and copied to amazon storage.  So the migrated vm will use the amazon storage service like EBS/S3. No need to extend the storage from enterprise.

2) The vm which is in enterprise is powered off, converted to ami format, and migrated to Amazon, and then powered on. So its offline migration.

3) At this release, the support to bring back the vm to enterprise is still not there.  However, after migrating a vm from enterprise to  Cloud, you can chose to retain the copy of the VM in enterprise which can be used later.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Anil Kumar.S

[admin11111]

Thanks for helping!