Port mirroring with a virtual Nexus switch

Use-case for Port mirroring with a virtual Nexus switch

In this use-case:

VMware

• The Cisco Nexus 1000V Series VEM runs as part of the VMware ESX or ESXi kernel and replaces the Vmware Virtual Switch functionality. The VEM uses the VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) API, which was developed jointly by Cisco and VMware, to provide advanced networking capability to virtual machines. This level of integration helps ensure that the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series is fully aware of all server virtualization events, such as VMware VMotion and Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS). The VEM takes configuration information from the VSM and performs Layer 2 switching and advanced networking functions namely Monitoring:

• NetFlow
• Switch Port Analyzer (SPAN)
• Encapsulated Remote SPAN (ERSPAN)

• VMware versions - 5.5 and 6.0

XenServer

• EXN-V versions – 7.4.9
• The Nexus 1000V is configured and mapped to NIC1, which has a direct connection to the WANWide Area Network router.
• The EXN-V has two four Ethernet interfaces (ETH0 / ETH10-3) with the AUX (ETH1) configured for Mirroring and ETH0 for management and management of the EXN-V.
• The EXN-V AUX port is configured to a port configured with SPAN port mirroring on the Nexus 1000V. This port should be dedicated to ensure there is no performance impact to data traffic.
• The applications (APP1 to 3) are connected to a separate switch port on the Nexus 1000V.