Application Traffic Steering

September 9, 2015

by Matt Conran Blog

Application Traffic Steering

In today's digital world, where online applications play a vital role in our personal and professional lives, ensuring their seamless performance and user experience is paramount. This is where Application Traffic Steering comes into play. In this blog post, we will explore Application Traffic Steering, how it works, and its importance in optimizing application performance and user satisfaction.

Application Traffic Steering is the process of intelligently directing network traffic to different application servers or resources based on predefined rules. It efficiently distributes incoming requests to multiple servers, ensuring optimal resource utilization and responsiveness.

Application traffic steering involves intelligently directing network traffic to ensure optimal performance and resource utilization. By leveraging advanced algorithms and network intelligence, it enables efficient data transmission and improves application responsiveness.

Enhanced User Experience: By dynamically routing traffic based on application requirements and network conditions, application traffic steering minimizes latency and packet loss. This results in a seamless user experience, with faster load times and smoother interactions.

Improved Network Performance: Efficient traffic steering optimizes network resources, reducing congestion and bottlenecks. By intelligently distributing traffic across available paths, it prevents overutilization of specific links, ensuring a balanced and reliable network infrastructure.

Increased Security and Reliability: Application traffic steering can enhance security by routing traffic through secure gateways or firewalls. It also enables redundancy and failover mechanisms, ensuring continuous service availability even in the event of network disruptions.

Load Balancing: Load balancing evenly distributes network traffic across multiple servers, ensuring optimal resource utilization. It can be accomplished through various algorithms, such as round-robin, least connections, or weighted distribution.

Quality of Service (QoS): QoS techniques prioritize specific types of traffic based on predefined rules. By allocating network resources accordingly, it guarantees a certain level of performance for critical applications or services.

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): CDNs employ application traffic steering to deliver content from geographically distributed servers. By serving content from the nearest server to the user, CDNs minimize latency and improve download speeds.

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, application traffic steering plays a pivotal role in optimizing user experiences, enhancing network performance, and ensuring reliability. By intelligently routing traffic and leveraging various techniques like load balancing, QoS, and CDNs, organizations can unlock the full potential of their applications while delivering seamless and efficient services.

Matt Conran

Highlights: Application Traffic Steering

Understanding Application Traffic Steering:

A: ) Application traffic steering refers to the strategic routing and distribution of network traffic to different applications or services within a network infrastructure. It involves directing traffic flows based on various factors, such as performance, availability, security, and user-defined policies. This dynamic process optimizes resource utilization and helps deliver an exceptional user experience.

B: ) Application traffic steering, traffic management, or load balancing intelligently distributes network traffic to multiple servers or resources to enhance efficiency and availability. By dynamically redirecting traffic based on predefined rules or algorithms, organizations can ensure seamless user experiences and prevent the overloading of specific servers. A network engineer manipulates your network to suit your traffic.

C: ) Steering policies can be configured for individual applications based on the application name, category, signature, URL, and domain. After classifying traffic, it can be directed along the available paths. The Application Steering strategy provides finer granularity for routing traffic than traditional destination-based routing. Furthermore, multiple applications can be steered from the same port and destination with Application Steering.

-Enhanced Performance: By efficiently distributing network traffic, application traffic steering optimizes resource usage, reduces response times, and improves application performance. Users experience faster loading times, lower latency, and seamless interactions with the application.

-Improved Scalability: Application traffic steering facilitates horizontal scaling, allowing organizations to handle increased traffic loads without sacrificing performance. Organizations can scale their resources by intelligently distributing traffic across multiple servers, ensuring smooth operations during peak usage.

High Availability: Application traffic steering allows organizations to achieve high availability by intelligently routing traffic away from overloaded or malfunctioning servers. By seamlessly redirecting traffic to healthy servers, organizations can minimize downtime and ensure uninterrupted application access.

Understanding Squid Proxy

Squid Proxy, an open-source caching and forwarding HTTP web proxy, acts as an intermediary between clients and servers. It enhances performance by caching frequently accessed web content, reducing bandwidth usage, and improving response times. Its versatility and extensive features make it a popular choice for individuals and organizations alike.

1. Enhanced Speed and Performance:

By caching frequently accessed web content, Squid Proxy significantly reduces the load on servers, resulting in faster response times and improved overall browsing speed.

2. Bandwidth Optimization:

Squid Proxy optimizes bandwidth usage by compressing data, filtering out unwanted content, and implementing advanced caching algorithms. This leads to a more efficient utilization of available bandwidth resources.

3. Content Filtering and Security:

One of the notable features of Squid Proxy is its ability to filter web content based on predefined rules. This empowers network administrators to control access tospecific websites, block malicious content, and ensure a safer browsing environment.

Techniques for Application Traffic Steering

Load Balancing: Load balancing is a foundational technique in application traffic steering. It involves distributing incoming network traffic across multiple servers, ensuring optimal resource utilization, and preventing bottlenecks. Load balancing can be achieved through various methods, such as round-robin, least connections, or weighted distribution, depending on the specific needs of the network infrastructure.

Content-based Routing: Content-based routing directs traffic based on specific criteria within the application payload. This technique enables intelligent decision-making by examining the content of incoming requests and routing them to appropriate servers or resources. By leveraging factors such as URL, headers, or session information, content-based routing ensures efficient handling of diverse application traffic.

Geographic Traffic Steering: Geographic traffic steering focuses on redirecting network traffic based on geographic location. By considering factors such as user proximity, latency, or data center availability, organizations can route traffic to the nearest or most suitable servers. This technique minimizes latency, improves response times, and enhances overall user experience.

Example: Load Balancing with HAProxy

Understanding HAProxy

HAProxy, which stands for High Availability Proxy, is an open-source load balancer and proxy server. It acts as an intermediary between client requests and backend servers, distributing traffic and optimizing resource utilization. Its lightweight and high-performance nature make it a top choice for many organizations.

HAProxy offers a plethora of features that contribute to its effectiveness in web traffic management. From load balancing algorithms, SSL termination, to health checks and session persistence, HAProxy provides comprehensive solutions to handle diverse traffic scenarios. Its scalability, flexibility, and robustness make it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes.

One of the notable advantages of HAProxy is its extensive configuration options. Administrators can fine-tune and customize various aspects of traffic management, including routing rules, request and response manipulation, and logging. The flexibility to adapt HAProxy to specific requirements empowers organizations to optimize their web infrastructure efficiently.

Google Cloud NEGs

**Understanding the Role of Network Endpoint Groups**

Network Endpoint Groups serve as a collection of endpoints that facilitate the distribution and management of network traffic. They come in handy when dealing with applications that require precise traffic steering across distributed environments. In the context of Google Cloud, NEGs can include both VM instances and non-VM endpoints, enabling a versatile approach to traffic management. By defining specific endpoints within a NEG, businesses can ensure that their applications are responsive and resilient, even under varying network conditions.

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**Application Traffic Steering with Google Cloud**

One of the primary advantages of Network Endpoint Groups is their ability to steer application traffic effectively. Google Cloud provides a robust set of tools to configure and manage NEGs, allowing businesses to dynamically route traffic based on predefined policies. This capability is particularly beneficial for applications that require low latency and high availability. By leveraging NEGs, organizations can direct traffic to the nearest or most responsive endpoints, optimizing user experience and resource utilization.

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**Implementing NEGs for Enhanced Scalability**

Scalability is a critical consideration for any business operating in the digital landscape. Network Endpoint Groups offer an efficient way to scale applications by distributing traffic across multiple endpoints. This distribution not only enhances performance but also provides a level of redundancy that can protect against endpoint failures. With Google Cloud’s integrated tools, businesses can easily adjust their network architecture to accommodate increased demand, ensuring that their applications remain available and performant.

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**Best Practices for Managing Network Endpoint Groups**

To maximize the benefits of Network Endpoint Groups, it’s important to adhere to best practices in their implementation and management. Start by clearly defining your traffic management goals and configuring NEGs to align with these objectives. Regularly monitor traffic patterns and adjust endpoint configurations as needed to maintain optimal performance. Additionally, take advantage of Google Cloud’s load balancing and health-checking features to ensure that traffic is always directed to healthy endpoints.

Understanding Load Balancing in Google Cloud

Load balancing in GCP is a fundamental concept that allows applications to scale, handle increased traffic, and ensure seamless user experiences. Google Cloud offers two primary types of load balancers: Network Load Balancer and HTTP Load Balancer. Let’s take a closer look at each.

Network Load Balancer: Network Load Balancer is designed to distribute traffic at the transport layer (Layer 4) by forwarding requests to backend instances based on IP address and port. It is suitable for protocols such as TCP and UDP, making it ideal for handling non-HTTP workloads. Setting up a Network Load Balancer involves several steps, including configuring forwarding rules, backend services, and health checks.

HTTP Load Balancer: HTTP Load Balancer operates at the application layer (Layer 7) and provides advanced load balancing features for HTTP and HTTPS traffic. It offers content-based routing, SSL termination, session affinity, and URL mapping capabilities. To set up an HTTP Load Balancer, you need to define backend services, target pools, forwarding rules, and configure SSL certificates if necessary.

### The Need for Cross-Region Load Balancing

Cross-region load balancing is crucial for businesses with a global reach. It enables seamless user experiences by routing traffic to the closest available server, thus reducing latency and improving load times. Additionally, it provides redundancy, ensuring that if one region experiences an outage, traffic can be rerouted to other healthy regions, maintaining the application’s availability.

### Google Cloud’s Approach to Load Balancing

Google Cloud offers a robust suite of load balancing solutions that are designed to handle the complexities of cross-region traffic distribution. Google’s HTTP(S) load balancer is a fully distributed, software-defined, managed service that supports global load balancing with a single anycast IP address. It automatically routes incoming requests to the nearest healthy backend, ensuring optimal performance and high availability.

### Setting Up Cross-Region Load Balancing on Google Cloud

To implement cross-region HTTP load balancing on Google Cloud, you need to:

1. **Create a Load Balancer:** Use the Google Cloud Console to set up a new HTTP(S) load balancer. This involves configuring the frontend, backend, and health check settings.

2. **Configure Backend Services:** Define backend services that will distribute traffic to the instances in your chosen regions. You can also set up autoscaling to dynamically adjust the number of instances based on traffic demands.

3. **Set Up URL Maps and Host Rules:** Customize how traffic is routed by setting up URL maps and host rules. This allows you to direct traffic to specific services based on the URL path or host name.

4. **Test and Monitor:** Once your setup is complete, test the load balancer to ensure it’s distributing traffic as expected. Google Cloud provides monitoring tools to help track performance and detect any issues.

Understanding SD-WAN Traffic Steering

SD-WAN traffic steering intelligently directs network traffic across multiple paths to ensure optimal performance and reliability. It involves analyzing network conditions, application requirements, and other factors to make informed routing decisions. SD-WAN traffic steering provides enhanced performance and flexibility by dynamically routing traffic based on real-time conditions.

Load Balancing: Load balancing is a fundamental traffic steering technique in SD-WAN. It involves distributing traffic across multiple paths to avoid congestion and maximize bandwidth utilization. SD-WAN devices intelligently monitor network conditions and dynamically adjust traffic distribution, ensuring efficient utilization of available resources.

Application-Aware Routing: Traditional routing techniques treat all traffic equally, regardless of the application type or priority. However, SD-WAN introduces application-aware routing, where traffic is routed based on application requirements. By prioritizing critical applications and allocating network resources accordingly, SD-WAN optimizes performance and user experience.

Performance-Based Routing: SD-WAN leverages performance-based routing to dynamically select the best path for network traffic. This technique continuously monitors factors such as latency, jitter, and packet loss to assess the quality of each available path. SD-WAN ensures consistent and reliable performance by intelligently routing traffic through the most optimal path.

Policy-Based Routing: Policy-based routing allows network administrators to define specific rules and policies for traffic steering. These policies are based on factors such as application type, user groups, or security requirements. SD-WAN devices enforce these policies to route traffic according to the predefined rules, providing granular control over network traffic.

Understanding EIGRP Load Balancing

– EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) is a dynamic routing protocol widely used in enterprise networks. Load balancing refers to the distribution of traffic across multiple paths, allowing for efficient utilization of available network resources. EIGRP load balancing achieves this by dividing traffic between numerous equal-cost paths, ensuring optimal utilization and enhancing network performance.

– Several factors must be considered to enable load balancing in EIGRP. First, the network topology must have multiple paths with equal metrics. This can be achieved by adjusting link costs or using equal-cost multipath (ECMP) techniques. Second, the router interfaces involved in load balancing should be configured to support it. This typically involves enabling EIGRP and specifying load-balancing parameters such as maximum-paths and variance.

– EIGRP offers different load-balancing algorithms to distribute traffic across multiple paths. These algorithms include per-packet load balancing, per-destination load balancing, and per-source/destination load balancing. Each algorithm has advantages and considerations, depending on the network requirements and characteristics. Understanding these algorithms is crucial for effective load-balancing implementation.

Understanding BGP AS Prepend

AS Prepending is a method for influencing routing path selection by adding additional AS numbers to the AS_PATH attribute. By manipulating the AS_PATH, network administrators can influence BGP routers to prefer specific paths. This technique is beneficial for directing traffic away from congested or underperforming links.

AS Prepending offers several advantages in network optimization. Firstly, distributing traffic across multiple paths allows for better load balancing. By strategically prepending AS numbers, you can encourage BGP routers to select alternate paths, optimizing network performance. Secondly, AS Prepending helps in traffic engineering, enabling you to control traffic flow and avoid congestion. Lastly, this technique improves network resilience by providing redundancy and failover capabilities.

Advanced Topics

Shortest-path routing

Every dynamic network backbone has some congested links, while others still need to be utilized. That’s because shortest-path routing protocols transmit traffic down the shortest path without regarding other network parameters, such as utilization and traffic demands. So, we need to employ application traffic engineering or traffic steering to use our network links.

Using Traffic Engineering (TE), we can redistribute packet flows to attain a more uniform distribution across all links in our network. Forcing traffic onto specific pathways lets you get the most out of your current network capacity while making it easier to deliver consistent service levels.

SDN-based Architecture

Many protocol combinations produce an SDN-based architecture to enable application traffic steering; native OpenFlow is only one of those protocols. Some companies view OpenFlow as a core SDN design component while others don’t even include it, aka BGP SDN controller and BGP SDN. For example, the Forwarding and Control Element Separation ( ForCES) working group has spent several years working on mechanisms for separating the control and data plane.

The role of OpenFlow

They created their southbound protocol and didn’t use OpenFlow to connect the data and control planes. On the other hand, NEC was one of the first organizations to take full advantage of the OpenFlow protocol. The market’s acceptance of SDN use cases has created products that fall into an OpenFlow or non-OpenFlow bucket. The following post discusses traffic steering that outright requires OpenFlow.

The OpenFlow protocol offers additional granular control to steer traffic through an ordered list of user-specific services. A task that traditional IP destination-based forwarding struggles to do efficiently. OpenFlow offers additional flow granularity and provides topology-independent service insertion required by network overlays, such as a VXLAN.

Understanding OpenFlow Traffic Steering

OpenFlow traffic steering involves intelligently directing network traffic flows within an SDN environment. By separating the control plane from the data plane, OpenFlow allows for centralized management and programmability of network devices. This enables granular control over routing decisions, flow prioritization, and traffic optimization.

Enhanced Network Flexibility: OpenFlow traffic steering empowers administrators to adapt and reconfigure their networks to meet changing demands dynamically. This flexibility improves scalability, reduces network congestion, and enhances overall network performance.

Efficient Traffic Management: With OpenFlow, traffic can be intelligently routed based on specific criteria such as quality of service (QoS), latency requirements, or security policies. This fine-grained control optimizes network utilization, minimizes packet loss, and improves end-to-end performance.

Simplified Network Operations: OpenFlow simplifies network operations by centralizing network control, reducing the complexity associated with traditional distributed routing protocols. Administrators can define traffic policies and implement changes across the network from a single management interface, thus streamlining network management tasks.

Implementing OpenFlow Traffic Steering

Network Infrastructure Requirements: Organizations need compatible network devices that support the OpenFlow protocol to implement OpenFlow traffic steering. These devices include OpenFlow-enabled switches and routers, which can be sourced from various vendors.

OpenFlow Controller Selection: It is crucial to select an appropriate OpenFlow controller. Popular choices include OpenDaylight, Ryu, and Floodlight. The OpenFlow controller acts as the brain of the network, managing traffic and enforcing policies based on predefined rules.

Rule Definition and Flow Configuration: Network administrators must define traffic flow rules within the OpenFlow controller. These rules specify how traffic should be handled, including routing decisions, QoS parameters, and any required packet modifications. Careful planning and rule design are essential to achieving desired traffic steering outcomes.

Related: You may find the following helpful post for pre-information.

The Role of Load Balancers:

Load balancing serves as the backbone of Application Traffic Steering. They act as intermediaries between clients and servers, receiving incoming requests and distributing them across multiple servers based on specific algorithms. These algorithms consider server load, response time, and availability to make informed decisions.

Application Traffic Steering Techniques:

1. Round Robin: This algorithm distributes traffic evenly across all available servers in a cyclic manner. While it is simple and easy to implement, it does not consider server load or response times, which may result in uneven distribution and suboptimal performance.

2. Least Connections: This algorithm directs traffic to the server with the fewest active connections at a given time. It ensures optimal resource utilization by distributing traffic based on the server’s current load. However, it doesn’t consider server response times, which may lead to slower performance on heavily loaded servers.

3. Weighted Round Robin: This algorithm assigns weights to servers based on their capabilities and performance. Servers with higher weights receive a larger share of traffic, enabling organizations to prioritize specific servers over others based on their capacity.

Multicast Traffic Steering

Multicast traffic steering is a technique for efficiently directing data packets to multiple recipients simultaneously. It is beneficial in scenarios where a single source needs to transmit data to various destinations. Instead of sending individual copies of the data to each recipient, multicast traffic steering enables the source to transmit a single copy efficiently distributed to all interested recipients.

Lab Guide on IGMPv1

IGMPv1 is a communication protocol that enables hosts on an Internet Protocol (IP) network to join and leave multicast groups. Multicast groups allow the simultaneous transmission of data packets from a single sender to multiple recipients.

By utilizing IGMPv1, hosts can efficiently manage their participation in multicast groups and receive relevant data from senders.

Below, we have one router and two hosts. We will enable multicast routing and IGMP on the router’s Gigabit 0/1 interface.

- First, we enabled multicast routing globally; this is required for the router to process IGMP traffic.
- We enabled PIM on the interface. PIM is used for multicast routing between routers and is also required for the router to process IGMP traffic.

Benefits of Multicast Traffic Steering:

1. Bandwidth Efficiency:

Multicast traffic steering reduces network congestion and optimizes bandwidth utilization. By transmitting a single copy of the data, it minimizes the duplication of data packets, resulting in significant bandwidth savings. This is especially advantageous in scenarios where large volumes of data must simultaneously be transmitted to multiple destinations, such as video streaming or software updates.

2. Scalability:

In networks with many recipients, multicast traffic steering ensures efficient data delivery without overwhelming the network infrastructure. Instead of creating a separate unicast connection for each recipient, multicast traffic steering establishes a single multicast group, reducing the burden on the network and enabling seamless scalability.

3. Reduced Network Latency:

Multicast traffic steering reduces network latency by eliminating the need for multiple unicast connections. Data packets are delivered directly to all interested recipients, minimizing the delay caused by establishing and maintaining individual connections for each recipient. This is particularly crucial for real-time applications, such as video conferencing or live streaming, where low latency is essential for a seamless user experience.

Traditional Layer 2 and Layer 3 Service Insertion

Example: Traditional Layer 2

In a flat Layer 2 environment, everybody can reach each other by their MAC address. There is no IP routing. If you want to intercept traffic, the switch in the middle must intercept and forward to a service device, such as a firewall.

The firewall doesn’t change anything; it’s a transparent bump in the wire. You would usually insert the same service in both directions so the firewall will see both directions of the TCP session. Service insertion at Layer 2 is achieved with VLAN chaining.

For example, VLAN-1 is used on one side and VLAN-2 on the other; different VLAN numbers link areas. VLAN chaining is limited and impossible to implement for individual applications. It is also an excellent source for creating network loops. You may encounter challenges when firewalls or service nodes do not pass the Bridge Protocol Data Unit (BPDU). Be careful to use this for large-scale service insertion production environments.

Example: Layer 3 Service Insertion

Layer 3 service insertion is much safer as forwarding is based on IP headers, not Layer 2 MAC addresses. Layer 3 IP headers have a “time-to-live” field that prevents loops from looping around the network. Layer 2 frames are redirected to a transparent or inter-subnet appliance.

This means the firewall device can do a MAC header rewrite on layer 2, or if the firewall is placed in different subnets, the MAC rewrite would be automatic as you will be doing layer 3 forwardings. Layer 3 service insertion is typically implemented with Policy-Based Routing (PBR).

“User-specific services may include firewall, deep packet inspection, caching, WAN acceleration and authentication.”

Application traffic steering, service function chaining, and dynamic service insertion

Application traffic steering, service function chaining, and dynamic service insertion functionally mean the same thing. They want to insert networking functions based on endpoints or applications in the forwarding path.

Service chaining applies a specific list of ordered services (service changing) to individual traffic flows. The main challenge is the ability to steer traffic to various devices. Such devices may be physical appliances or follow the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) format.

Designing with traditional mechanisms leads to cumbersome configurations and multiple device touchpoints. For example, service appliances that need to intercept and analyze traffic could be centralized in a data center or service provider network. Service centralization results in users’ traffic “tromboning” to the central service device for interaction.

Traffic tromboning

Traffic tromboning may not be an issue for data center leaf and spine architecture with equidistant endpoints. However, other aggregated network designs that don’t follow the leaf and spine model may run into interesting problems. A central service network point also represents a “choking point” and may increase path latency. Service integration should be flexible and not designed with a “meet me” architecture.

The requirement for “flow” level granularity

Traditional routing is based on destination-based forwarding and cannot provide the granularity needed for topology-independent traffic steering. You may implement tricks with PBR and ACL, but they increase complexity and have vendor-specific configurations. Efficient traffic steering requires a granular “flow” level of interaction, which is not offered by default destination-based forwarding.

The requirement for large-scale cloud networks drives multitenancy, and network overlays are becoming the defacto technology used to meet this requirement. Network overlays require new services to be topology-independent.

Unfortunately, IP routing is limited, and different types of traffic going to the same destination cannot be distinguished. Traffic steering based on traditional Layer 2 or 3 mechanisms is inefficient and does not allow dynamic capabilities.

SDN Adoption

A single OpenFlow rule pushed down from the central SDN controller provides the same effect as complex PBR and ACL designs. Traffic steering is accomplished with OpenFlow at an IP destination or IP flow layer of granularity. This dramatically simplifies network operations as there is no need for PBR and ACL configurations. There is less network and component state as all the rules and intelligence are maintained at the SDN central controller.

A holistic viewpoint enables singular points for configuration, not numerous touchpoints throughout the network. A virtual switch, such as the Open vSwitch, can be used for data. It is a multi-layered switch that is highly well-featured.

There are alternatives for pushing ACL rules down to network devices, such as RFC 5575 and Dissemination of Flow Specification Rules. It works with a BGP control plane (BGP flow spec) that can install rules and ACL to network devices.

One significant difference between BGP flow spec and OpenFlow for traffic steering is that the OpenFlow method has a central control policy. BGP flow spec consists of several distributed devices, and configuration changes will require multiple touchpoints in the network.

Summary: Application Traffic Steering

In today’s digital age, where connectivity is paramount, efficient application traffic steering ensures optimal performance and user experience. This blog post explores the various aspects of application traffic steering and its significance in the modern landscape.

What is Application Traffic Steering?

Application traffic steering intelligently directs network traffic to different applications or services based on predetermined rules or conditions. It involves the efficient distribution of traffic to achieve load balancing, improve reliability, and enhance overall application performance.

Load Balancing for Enhanced Performance

One of the primary objectives of application traffic steering is load balancing. Efficient distribution of traffic across multiple servers or data centers prevents any single point of failure and ensures high availability. Load-balancing algorithms intelligently analyze server health, capacity, and response times to direct traffic and optimize resource utilization.

Traffic Steering Techniques

Various techniques are employed for application traffic steering. One common approach is DNS-based traffic steering, where the Domain Name System is leveraged to direct users to different IP addresses based on specific criteria. Another technique is layer 4 load balancing, which operates at the transport layer of the network stack and distributes traffic based on IP addresses and port numbers.

Content-Aware Traffic Steering

Content-aware traffic steering takes traffic steering to the next level by analyzing the actual content of the application traffic. This technique enables intelligent routing decisions based on application performance, user location, security requirements, and network conditions. It helps optimize the user experience by dynamically adapting to changing network conditions.

Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs)

ADCs are specialized devices or software solutions that are key in application traffic steering. They act as intermediaries between clients and servers, providing advanced traffic management functionalities such as load balancing, SSL offloading, caching, and security. ADCs enable organizations to efficiently manage application traffic while ensuring maximum performance, scalability, and security.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, application traffic steering is vital for optimizing application performance, enhancing user experience, and ensuring high availability. With the ever-increasing demand for seamless connectivity and robust applications, mastering application traffic steering is paramount. By leveraging various techniques and utilizing advanced tools like ADCs, organizations can confidently navigate the digital highway, delivering reliable and exceptional user experiences.

SDN Data Center

August 9, 2014

by Matt Conran Blog

SDN Data Center

The world of technology consists of data centers that play a crucial role in storing and managing vast amounts of information. Traditional data centers, however, have faced challenges in terms of scalability, flexibility, and efficiency. Enter Software-Defined Networking (SDN), a groundbreaking approach reshaping the landscape of data centers. In this blog post, we will explore the concept of SDN, its benefits, and its potential to revolutionize data centers as we know them.

In SDN, the functions of network nodes (switches, routers, bare metal servers, etc.) are abstracted so they can be managed globally and coherently. A single controller, the SDN controller, manages the whole entity coherently by detaching the network device's decision-making part (control plane) from its operational part (data plane).

The name "Software Defined" comes from this controller, allowing "network programmability." The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) was founded in March 2011 to promote the concept and development of OpenFlow. In 2009, the University of Stanford (US) and its research center (ONRC) published the first OpenFlow specifications, one of the protocols used by SDN controllers.

- Traditional data center networks often face challenges such as complex configurations, limited scalability, and lack of agility. SDN technology addresses these issues by introducing a software-based approach to network management. With SDN, data center operators can automate network provisioning, streamline operations, and achieve greater scalability. Moreover, SDN enables network virtualization, allowing multiple virtual networks to coexist on a shared physical infrastructure, leading to improved resource utilization.

- Security is a top priority for data centers, and SDN brings notable advancements in this domain. With its centralized control, SDN provides a holistic view of the network, enabling enhanced security policies and threat detection mechanisms. By dynamically allocating resources and isolating traffic, SDN mitigates potential security breaches. Additionally, SDN facilitates network resilience through features like automatic traffic rerouting, load balancing, and real-time network monitoring.

- The applications of SDN in data centers are vast and varied. One notable use case is network virtualization, which allows data center operators to create isolated virtual networks for different tenants or applications. This enhances resource allocation and provides better network performance. SDN also enables efficient load balancing across servers, optimizing resource utilization and improving application delivery. Furthermore, SDN facilitates the deployment of network services, such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems, in a more agile and scalable manner.

Matt Conran

Highlights: SDN Data Center

SDN Data Center

What is SDN:

With SDN, network nodes (switches, routers, bare-metal servers, etc.) are abstracted from their functions, which allows them to be managed globally and coherently. An SDN controller coherently manages the entire system through its control plane (control plane) and data plane (data plane (data plane). “Network programmability” is enabled by Software Defined Controllers. March 2011 saw the founding of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and developing OpenFlow. Research centers, such as Stanford University’s ONRC, which produced the first OpenFlow specifications in 2009, were interested in using OpenFlow as a protocol for SDN controllers.

Why do we need it?

IT teams are responsible for building and managing IT infrastructure and applications, but they should also serve key business drivers for their organization, such as these:

Affordability
Growth
Adaptability
Ability to scale
A secure environment.

As we know, non-SDN networks in the data center space have many drawbacks and present many operational challenges to modern IT infrastructures. In addition to these challenges, organisations from diverse industries raised new demands for SDN.

Google Cloud Data Centers

### What is Google Network Connectivity Center?

Google Network Connectivity Center (NCC) is a comprehensive network management solution designed to unify and simplify the connectivity experience. It serves as a centralized hub for managing and orchestrating network connectivity, providing a holistic view of an organization’s network. By leveraging NCC, businesses can ensure efficient and secure data flow between their on-premises infrastructure, cloud environments, and remote locations.

### Key Features of NCC

#### Centralized Management

One of the standout features of NCC is its centralized management capability. It allows network administrators to monitor and control multiple network connections from a single interface. This centralization reduces complexity and enhances operational efficiency, making it easier to identify and resolve connectivity issues swiftly.

#### Automation and Orchestration

NCC integrates powerful automation and orchestration tools, which streamline network operations. Automated workflows can be configured to handle routine tasks, reducing the manual effort required and minimizing the risk of human error. This ensures that network operations remain consistent and reliable.

#### Enhanced Security

Security is a top priority for any network management solution, and NCC is no exception. It offers robust security features such as encryption, access control, and threat detection. These features help safeguard the integrity and confidentiality of data as it moves across different network segments.

*What Are Managed Instance Groups?**

Managed Instance Groups are a powerful feature of Google Cloud that allows you to manage a group of identical virtual machine (VM) instances. These groups are designed to provide automated, scalable, and resilient VM operations. By using templates, you can define configurations for your instances, ensuring consistency and control across your infrastructure. Whether you’re running a web application or a large-scale computational workload, MIGs can help you maintain optimal performance and availability.

**The Benefits of Using Managed Instance Groups**

One of the primary benefits of Managed Instance Groups is their ability to automatically scale your infrastructure based on demand. This means you can dynamically add or remove instances in response to traffic patterns, reducing costs during low-demand periods and ensuring capacity during peak times. Additionally, MIGs come with built-in load balancing, distributing incoming traffic evenly across your instances, which enhances application reliability and performance.

**How to Set Up Managed Instance Groups on Google Cloud**

Setting up a Managed Instance Group in Google Cloud is straightforward. First, you’ll need to create an instance template, which specifies the machine type, image, and other instance properties. Then, you can create a Managed Instance Group using this template, defining parameters such as the number of instances and the scaling policy. Google Cloud provides an intuitive interface and comprehensive documentation to guide you through this process, making it accessible even for those new to cloud computing.

**Best Practices for Optimizing Managed Instance Groups**

To get the most out of your Managed Instance Groups, it’s essential to follow best practices. Start by defining clear scaling policies that align with your application’s needs. Regularly update your instance templates to incorporate the latest software updates and patches. Additionally, monitor your instance group’s performance using Google Cloud’s monitoring tools, allowing you to make data-driven decisions and optimize resource allocation.

ESXi Host Client

### Getting Started with ESXi Host Client

Before diving into advanced functionalities, it’s essential to understand the basics. To access the ESXi Host Client, simply open a web browser and enter the IP address or hostname of your ESXi host. You’ll be prompted to log in with your administrative credentials. Once logged in, you’ll be greeted with a dashboard that provides an overview of your host’s status, including resource usage, active VMs, and important notifications.

### Key Features and Functionalities

The ESXi Host Client is packed with features designed to streamline your workflow. Some of the most notable functionalities include:

– **Virtual Machine Management**: Easily create, configure, and manage virtual machines directly from the host client. You can start, stop, and restart VMs, as well as monitor their performance and resource allocation.

– **Storage Management**: The client allows you to manage datastores, browse datastore files, and even upload ISO images needed for VM installations.

– **Networking Configuration**: Configure network settings such as vSwitches, port groups, and VLANs. This ensures your VMs have the necessary connectivity while maintaining network security.

– **Host Health Monitoring**: Keep an eye on your host’s health with real-time monitoring of CPU, memory, and storage usage. Receive alerts for any issues that might require your attention.

### Advanced Tips and Tricks

While the ESXi Host Client is user-friendly, there are several advanced tips and tricks that can enhance your experience:

– **Custom Dashboards**: Create custom dashboards tailored to your specific needs. This can help you monitor key metrics at a glance and quickly identify any potential issues.

– **Scripting and Automation**: Use the power of VMware’s APIs to automate routine tasks. This can save you time and reduce the risk of human error.

– **Snapshot Management**: Efficiently manage VM snapshots to ensure you always have a backup before making significant changes. This is particularly useful during software updates or configuration changes.

Understanding Container Networking Fundamentals

Container networking revolves around enabling communication between containers, as well as establishing connections with external networks. It involves various components such as virtual bridges, network namespaces, and IP routing. By understanding these fundamentals, developers and system administrators can harness the full potential of container networking to create robust and scalable applications.

Example IPv6: SDN Data Center

OSPFv3, which stands for Open Shortest Path First version 3, is an enhanced version of OSPF designed specifically for IPv6 networks. It serves as a dynamic routing protocol that enables routers to exchange information and determine the most efficient paths for packet forwarding. Unlike its predecessor, OSPFv2, OSPFv3 fully supports the IPv6 addressing scheme, making it an essential component of modern network infrastructures.

One notable feature of OSPFv3 is its support for multiple address families, allowing for the simultaneous routing of IPv6, IPv4, and other address families. This flexibility is crucial in transitioning networks from IPv4 to IPv6 while ensuring backward compatibility. Furthermore, OSPFv3 utilizes link-local IPv6 addresses for neighbor discovery and communication, simplifying configuration and improving network scalability.

The Value of SDN

In addition to OpenFlow, software-defined networks (SDNs) provide another paradigm shift. In the last few years, the idea of separating the data plane, which runs in hardware ASICs on network switches, from the control plane, which runs on a central controller, has gained traction. This effort aims to develop standardized OpenFlow APIs that expose rich functionality from the hardware to the controller. For the entire data center cluster comprised of different types of switches to be uniformly programmed to enforce a specific policy, SDNs should promote programmatic interfaces that switch vendors should support. At its simplest, the data plane merely programs hardware based on the controller’s directions by serving as a set of “dumb” devices.

SDN Controllers

SDN controllers serve as the brains of an SDN data center. They are responsible for managing and orchestrating network traffic flow. Through a centralized control plane, SDN controllers provide a unified network view, allowing administrators to implement policies, configure devices, and monitor traffic. These controllers are the driving force behind the agility and programmability offered by SDN data centers.

OpenFlow Protocol

The OpenFlow protocol is at the heart of SDN data centers. It enables communication between the SDN controller and network devices such as switches and routers. By separating the control plane from the data plane, OpenFlow allows administrators to control network traffic flow directly, making it easier to implement dynamic and granular network policies. The protocol facilitates the flexibility and adaptability of SDN data centers.

SDN Switches

SDN switches play a crucial role in SDN data centers by forwarding network packets based on instructions received from the SDN controller. These switches are programmable and provide a level of intelligence that traditional switches lack. SDN switches can implement traffic engineering, Quality of Service (QoS) policies, and security measures. Their programmability and centralized management make SDN switches an integral part of SDN data centers.

Network Virtualization

One of the critical advantages of SDN data centers is network virtualization. By abstracting the underlying physical network infrastructure, SDN enables the creation of virtual networks. These virtual networks can be customized, isolated, and securely provisioned, providing flexibility and scalability to meet the dynamic demands of modern applications. Network virtualization is a game-changer for SDN data centers, offering enhanced resource utilization and simplified network management.

Scalability

As server ports increased in density, data centers grew, making it impossible to keep up. A limited number of MAC addresses, inactive links, and multicast streams prevented multicast streams from being transported in this case. Infrastructure growth became more than a “nice to have” as needs evolved. Using SDN controllers and standardized off-the-shelf switches, adding new switches and configuring their configurations quickly became easy.

To maximize downlink throughput, all links on switches must be utilized. Local networks already know about the widespread use of spreading trees (which disable parts of links). As a result of the phenomenal growth of server density, various multipathing scenarios have been addressed using things like Multi-Chassis EtherChannel (MEC) and ECMP (Equal Cost Multi-Path) with CLOS architectures.

Virtualization is one of the abstraction capabilities brought by SDN. Multiple isolated virtual networks were used to compute and store data on servers. There was also a virtualization movement in the network industry. At different layers, SDN has been developed in several variants.

ClOS-based architectures

In recent years, high-speed network switches have made CLOS-based31 architectures extremely popular. The CLOS topology has a simple rule: switches at tier x should only be connected to switches at tier x-1 and x+1 and never to other switches at the same tier. In this topology, redundancy provides high resilience, fault tolerance, and traffic load sharing. Due to the many redundant paths between any two switches, network resources can be utilized efficiently. There is no oversubscription in CLOS-based architectures, which may be advantageous for some applications due to the huge bisection bandwidth. Additionally, the relatively simple topology alleviates the burden of having separate core and aggregation layers inherent in traditional three-tier architectures, which help troubleshoot traffic.

Example Technology: Nexus and VPC

Understanding Nexus Virtual Port Channel

At its core, Nexus vPC is a feature that allows two Nexus switches to appear as a single logical entity. This logical entity enables the creation of redundancy, load balancing, and seamless failover mechanisms. Linking the switches together through a virtual port channel allows them to share the traffic load and act as a unified system. This technology eliminates the traditional limitations of spanning tree protocol and unlocks new levels of performance and resiliency.

The benefits of deploying Nexus vPC are manifold. First and foremost, it enhances network availability by providing active-active links between switches. In the event of a link failure, traffic seamlessly fails over to the remaining links, minimizing downtime. Additionally, vPC enables load balancing across the links, optimizing bandwidth utilization and improving overall network performance. This feature is precious in data centers with high traffic demands.

What problems do we have, and what are we doing about them? Ask yourself: Are data centers ready and available for today’s applications and tomorrow’s emerging data center applications? Businesses and applications are putting pressure on networks to change, ushering in a new era of data center design. From 1960 to 1985, we started with mainframes and supported a customer base of about one million users.

Example: ACI Cisco

ACI Cisco, short for Application Centric Infrastructure, is a software-defined networking (SDN) solution developed by Cisco Systems. It provides a holistic approach to managing and automating network infrastructure, allowing organizations to achieve agility, scalability, and security all in one framework.

Cisco ACI is a software-defined networking (SDN) solution that brings automation, scalability, and agility to network infrastructure. It combines physical and virtual elements, creating a unified and programmable network fabric that simplifies operations and accelerates application deployment. By abstracting network policies from the underlying infrastructure, Cisco ACI enables organizations to achieve policy-driven automation and policy-based security across the entire network.

Example Technology: BGP in the data center

Understanding BGP Multipath

BGP Multipath is a feature that enables the installation of multiple paths for the same destination prefix in the BGP routing table. Unlike traditional BGP, which only selects a single best path, BGP Multipath allows for the utilization of multiple paths simultaneously. This feature significantly enhances network resiliency, load balancing, and routing efficiency.

Load Balancing: BGP Multipath distributes traffic across multiple paths, preventing congestion on a single path and optimizing bandwidth utilization. This load-balancing mechanism enhances network performance and reduces bottlenecks.

Fault Tolerance: BGP Multipath increases network resilience and fault tolerance by providing redundancy. In a link failure or congestion, traffic can be seamlessly rerouted through alternative paths, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity.

Improved Convergence: BGP Multipath reduces convergence time by incorporating multiple paths into the routing decision process. This results in faster route selection and improved network responsiveness.

Security in SDN Data Centers

Example Technology: Nexus and MAC ACLs

Understanding MAC ACLs

MAC ACLs, or Media Access Control Access Control Lists, are powerful tools that allow network administrators to filter traffic based on source or destination MAC addresses. By defining specific rules, administrators can permit or deny traffic at Layer 2 and enhance network security and performance.

Nexus 9000 MAC ACLs offer several advantages over traditional access control methods. Firstly, they provide granular control at the MAC address level, enabling administrators to restrict or allow access to specific devices. Additionally, MAC ACLs can be dynamically applied to VLANs, making them highly scalable and adaptable to evolving network environments.

Configuring MAC ACLs on the Nexus 9000 is straightforward. Administrators can define ACL rules using the command-line interface (CLI) or the graphical user interface (GUI). By specifying the MAC addresses, action (permit/deny), and optional parameters, administrators can create custom access control policies tailored to their network requirements.

VXLAN Overlays

Scalability and Agility:

With the increasing demands of modern business applications, scalability and agility are paramount. Cisco ACI offers a highly scalable architecture that can adapt to changing network requirements. By leveraging a spine-leaf topology and VXLAN overlays, Cisco ACI provides a flexible and scalable foundation that can seamlessly grow to accommodate evolving business needs.

VXLAN, at its core, is an encapsulation protocol that enables the creation of virtualized networks over existing Layer 3 infrastructure. It extends Layer 2 segments over Layer 3 networks, facilitating scalable and flexible network virtualization. Using unique VXLAN identifiers overcomes the limitations of traditional VLANs, allowing for a significantly more significant number of virtual networks to coexist.

Benefits of VXLAN

-Enhanced Scalability and Flexibility: VXLAN addresses the limitations of VLANs, which are often restricted to a maximum of 4096 unique IDs. With VXLAN, the pool of available IDs expands dramatically, creating an almost limitless number of virtual networks. This scalability empowers organizations to meet the demands of modern applications and dynamic workloads.

-Improved Network Segmentation: VXLAN enables efficient network segmentation by isolating traffic within virtual networks. This segmentation enhances security, simplifies network management, and provides a more robust framework for multi-tenancy environments. By leveraging VXLAN, organizations can better control and isolate their network traffic.

-Seamless Network Extension and Migration: VXLAN facilitates seamless network extension and migration across data centers, campuses, or cloud environments. By encapsulating Layer 2 frames within Layer 3 packets, VXLAN enables the creation of virtual networks that span geographically dispersed locations. This capability simplifies workload mobility, disaster recovery, and data center consolidation efforts.

Example Technology: VXLAN Flood and Learn

The Basics of Flood and Learn

As the name suggests, VXLAN Flood and Learn involves flooding network traffic to learn the MAC (Media Access Control) addresses. In traditional Ethernet networks, switches use MAC address tables to determine the destination of incoming frames. However, in VXLAN environments, the MAC addresses of virtual machines and hosts keep changing due to mobility and dynamic provisioning. Flood and Learn addresses this challenge by flooding traffic to all ports, allowing the switches to learn the MAC addresses associated with each VXLAN.

VXLAN Flood and Learn offers several benefits and finds applications in various scenarios. One such application is in data center environments with virtualized networks. It enables seamless communication between virtual machines across different hosts without requiring manual MAC address configuration. VXLAN Flood and Learn also facilitates network mobility, making it suitable for dynamic workloads and cloud environments.

Example: Software-defined data centers

To offer computing and network services to many clients, software-defined data centers (SDDCs) use virtualization technologies to separate hardware infrastructure into virtual machines. All computing, storage, and networking resources can be abstracted and represented as software in a virtualized data center. Anybody could access the data center resources if sold as a service.

SDDCs include software-defined networking (SDN) and virtual machines. In addition to Citrix, KVM, OpenDaylight, OpenStack, OpenFlow, Red Hat, and VMware, many other open and proprietary software platforms exist for virtualizing computing resources.

The advantage of SDDC is that clients do not have to build their infrastructure. They can meet their computing, networking, and storage needs by renting resources from the cloud. It is advantageous for software companies or service providers to have centralized data centers because they can serve many clients simultaneously. Hardware and storage costs are plummeting, a significant factor driving SDDC and cloud computing. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) becomes more economical as these resources become cheaper, making it more advantageous to build large data centers on a large scale.

Example: Open Networking Foundation

We also have the Open Networking Foundation ( ONF ), which leverages SDN principles, employs open-source platforms, and defines standards to build and operate open networking. The ONF’s portfolio includes several areas, such as mobile, broadband, and data centers running on white box hardware.

Recap on SDN Principles

SDN Defined:

SDN is an innovative approach to networking that separates the control plane from the data plane, providing a centralized and programmable network architecture. SDN enables dynamic and agile network management by decoupling network control and forwarding functions.

1. Centralized Control:

SDN leverages a central controller that acts as the brain of the network, making intelligent decisions about traffic forwarding, network policies, and resource allocation. This centralized control enhances network visibility and simplifies management tasks.

At its core, SDN centralized control refers to a network architecture in which a central controller governs the behavior of the entire network. Unlike traditional networking models, where intelligence is distributed across different network devices, SDN Centralized Control consolidates control into a single entity. This central controller acts as the brain of the network, making global decisions and orchestrating network flows.

SDN Centralized Control offers many advantages. First, it gives network administrators a holistic view of the entire network, simplifying management and troubleshooting processes. With a centralized controller, administrators can configure and monitor network devices from a single control point, saving time and effort.

2. Programmability:

One of the critical principles of SDN is its programmability. Network administrators can dynamically control and configure the network behavior by utilizing open interfaces and standard protocols like OpenFlow. This programmability empowers network operators to tailor the network to specific needs and applications.

SDN programmability is the ability to control and manipulate network behavior through software-based programming interfaces. It allows network administrators to dynamically configure and manage network resources, making networks more adaptable and responsive to changing business needs. By separating the control plane from the data plane, SDN programmability enables centralized management and control of network infrastructure, leading to simplified operations and increased efficiency.

SDN programmability empowers network administrators to respond to changing demands and quickly adapt network configurations. It allows for the creation of virtual networks, enabling the seamless segmentation and isolation of network traffic. This flexibility allows organizations to optimize network resources and support diverse applications and services.

Traditionally, scaling network infrastructure has been a complex and time-consuming task. SDN programmability simplifies the scaling process by automating the provisioning and deployment of network resources. This scalability ensures that network performance remains optimal even during peak usage periods.

3. Abstraction:

SDN abstracts the underlying network infrastructure, providing a simplified and logical view of the network. By abstracting complex network details, SDN enables higher-level automation, easier troubleshooting, and more efficient resource utilization.

SDN abstraction is the process of separating the underlying network infrastructure from the control logic that governs it. By abstracting the network resources, administrators can interact with the network at a higher level of abstraction, making it easier to manage and automate complex tasks. This abstraction layer provides a simplified, centralized network view independent of the underlying hardware and protocols.

SDN abstraction offers unprecedented flexibility by decoupling network control from the underlying infrastructure. It enables dynamic control and reconfiguration of network resources, allowing for rapid adaptation to changing requirements.

With SDN abstraction, complex network configurations can be managed through a single, intuitive interface. Administrators can define network policies and services without getting involved in the low-level details of network devices.

Abstraction simplifies network management, making it easier to scale the network infrastructure. By automating tasks and reducing the manual effort required, SDN abstraction improves operational efficiency and reduces the risk of human errors.

Google Cloud Data Centers

Understanding Network Tiers

Network tiers, in simple terms, are a hierarchical structure that categorizes the quality, performance, and cost of network connections. Google Cloud offers two main tiers: Premium Tier and Standard Tier. Let’s explore each tier in detail.

The Premium Tier is designed for businesses that demand the utmost in performance, reliability, and low latency. Leveraging Google’s vast global network infrastructure, the Premium Tier ensures optimized routing, reduced congestion, and enhanced end-user experience. Whether your application requires lightning-fast response times or handles mission-critical workloads, the Premium Tier is tailored to meet your needs.

For organizations seeking a cost-effective network solution without compromising on quality, the Standard Tier is an excellent choice. With competitive pricing, this tier offers reliable connectivity while prioritizing affordability. It serves as a viable option for applications that are less latency-sensitive or require less bandwidth.

Understanding VPC Peerings

VPC Peerings serve as a bridge between two VPC networks, allowing them to communicate as if they were part of the same network. It establishes a private and encrypted connection between VPC networks, ensuring data privacy and security. With VPC Peerings, you can extend your network’s reach, enabling collaboration and data sharing across different VPCs.

Enhanced Security: By utilizing VPC Peerings, you can establish secure connections between VPC networks without exposing your services to the public internet. This helps mitigate potential security risks and ensures your data remains protected.

Improved Performance: VPC Peerings enable low-latency and high-throughput communication between VPC networks. This allows for faster data transfer and reduces network bottlenecks, enhancing overall application performance.

Simplified Network Architecture: VPC Peerings eliminate the need for complex VPN configurations or costly dedicated connections. They simplify your network architecture by providing seamless connections and communication between VPC networks.

vCenter Server

**Seamless Management of Virtual Environments**

One of the most compelling features of vCenter Server is its ability to provide a single pane of glass for managing your entire virtual environment. This centralized control allows administrators to monitor resource allocation, optimize performance, and ensure high availability across multiple virtual machines (VMs). With vCenter Server, you can easily create, configure, and manage VMs, clusters, and data stores, ensuring that your infrastructure is always running smoothly.

**Enhanced Security and Compliance**

In today’s digital age, security is more critical than ever. vCenter Server includes robust security features designed to protect your virtual environment. From role-based access control (RBAC) to secure boot and encrypted vMotion, vCenter Server ensures that your data remains protected. Additionally, it offers compliance tools that help you adhere to industry standards and regulations, making it easier to pass audits and avoid potential fines.

**Automation and Orchestration**

Why spend countless hours on repetitive tasks when you can automate them? vCenter Server supports a variety of automation tools, including vRealize Orchestrator and PowerCLI, which allow you to script and automate routine operations. This not only saves time but also reduces the risk of human error, improving overall efficiency. With built-in automation features, you can schedule tasks such as VM provisioning, backups, and updates, freeing up your IT team to focus on more strategic initiatives.

**Scalability and Flexibility**

As your business grows, so does your need for a scalable and flexible IT infrastructure. vCenter Server is designed to scale seamlessly with your organization. Whether you’re managing a small cluster of VMs or an extensive data center, vCenter Server can handle it all. Its flexible architecture supports hybrid cloud environments, allowing you to extend your on-premises infrastructure to the cloud effortlessly. This scalability ensures that you can meet changing business demands without significant disruptions.

Related: Before you proceed, you may find the following post helpful:

SDN Data Center

The Future of Data Centers

Exploring Software-Defined Networking (SDN)

In recent years, the rapid advancement of technology has given rise to various innovative solutions transforming how data centers operate. One such revolutionary technology is Software-Defined Networking (SDN), which has garnered significant attention and is set to reshape the landscape of data centers as we know them. In this blog post, we will delve into the fundamentals of SDN and explore its potential to revolutionize data center architecture.

SDN is a networking paradigm that separates the control plane from the data plane, enabling centralized control and programmability of network infrastructure. Unlike traditional network architectures, where network devices make independent decisions, SDN offers a centralized management approach, providing administrators with a holistic view and control over the entire network.

The Benefits of SDN in Data Centers

Enhanced Network Flexibility and Scalability:

SDN allows data center administrators to allocate network resources dynamically based on real-time demands. Scaling up or down becomes seamless with SDN, resulting in improved flexibility and agility. This capability is crucial in today’s data-driven environment, where rapid scalability is essential to meeting growing business demands.

Simplified Network Management:

SDN abstracts the complexity of network management by centralizing control and offering a unified view of the network. This simplification enables more efficient troubleshooting, faster service provisioning, and streamlined network management, ultimately reducing operational costs and increasing overall efficiency.

Increased Network Security:

By offering a centralized control plane, SDN enables administrators to implement stringent security policies consistently across the entire data center network. SDN’s programmability allows for dynamic security measures, such as traffic isolation and malware detection, making it easier to respond to emerging threats.

SDN and Network Virtualization:

SDN and network virtualization are closely intertwined, as SDN provides the foundation for implementing network virtualization in data centers. By decoupling network services from physical infrastructure, virtualization enables the creation of virtual networks that can be customized and provisioned on demand. SDN’s programmability further enhances network virtualization by allowing the rapid deployment and management of virtual networks.

Back to Basics: SDN Data Center

From 1985 to 2009, we moved to the personal computer, client/server model, and LAN /Internet model, supporting a customer base of hundreds of millions. From 2009 to 2020+, the industry has completely changed. We have various platforms (mobile, social, big data, and cloud) with billions of users, and it is estimated that the new IT industry will be worth 4.8T. All of these are forcing us to examine the existing data center topology.

SDN data center architecture is a type of architectural model that adds a level of abstraction to the functions of network nodes. These nodes may include switches, routers, bare metal servers, etc.), to manage them globally and coherently. So, with an SDN topology, we have a central place to work a disparate network of various devices and device types.

We will discuss the SDN topology in more detail shortly. At its core, SDN enables the entire network to be centrally controlled, or ‘programmed,’ using a software SDN application layer. The significant advantage of SDN is that it allows operators to manage the whole network consistently, regardless of the underlying network technology.

Statistics don’t lie.

The customer has changed and is making us change our data center topology. Content doubles over the next two years, and emerging markets may overtake mature markets. We expect 5,200 GB of data/per person created in 2020. These new demands and trends are putting a lot of duress on the amount of content that will be made, and how we serve and control this content poses new challenges to data networks.

Knowledge check for other software-defined data center market

The software-defined data center market is considerable. In terms of revenue, it was estimated at $43.178 billion in 2020. However, this has grown significantly; now, the software-defined data center market will grow to $120.3 billion by 2025, representing a CAGR of 22.4%.

Knowledge Check for SDN data center architecture and SDN Topology.

Software Defined Networking (SDN) simplifies computer network management and operation. It is an approach to network management and architecture that enables administrators to manage network services centrally using software-defined policies. In addition, the SDN data center architecture enables greater visibility and control over the network by separating the control plane from the data plane. Administrators can control routing, traffic management, and security by centralized managing networks. With global visibility, administrators can control the entire network. They can then quickly apply network policies to all devices by creating and managing them efficiently.

The Value: SDN Topology

An SDN topology separates the control plane from the data plane connected to the physical network devices. This allows for better network management and configuration flexibility, and configuring the control plane can create a more efficient and scalable network.

The SDN topology has three layers: the control plane, the data plane, and the physical network. The control plane controls the data plane, which carries the data packets. It is also responsible for setting up virtual networks, configuring network devices, and managing the overall SDN topology.

A personal network impact assessment report

I recently approved a network impact assessment for various data center network topologies. One of my customers was looking at rate-limiting current data transfer over the WAN ( Wide Area Network ) at 9.5mbps over 10 hours for 34GB of data transfer at an off-prime time window. Due to application and service changes, this customer plans to triple that volume over the next 12 months.

They result in a WAN upgrade and a change in the scope of DR ( Disaster Recovery ). Big Data, Applications, Social Media, and Mobility force architects to rethink how they engineer networks. We should concentrate more on scale, agility, analytics, and management.

SDN Data Center Architecture: The 80/20 traffic rule

The data center design was based on the 80/20 traffic pattern rule with Spanning Tree Protocol ( 802.1D ), where we have a root, and all bridges build a loop-free path to that root. This results in half ports forwarding and half in a blocking state—completely wasting your bandwidth even though we can load balance based on a certain number of VLANs forwarding on one uplink and another set of VLANs forwarding on the secondary uplink.

We still face the problems and scalability of having large Layer 2 domains in your data center design. Spanning tree is not a routing protocol; it’s a loop prevention protocol, and as it has many disastrous consequences, it should be limited to small data center segments.

SDN Data Center	Data Center Stability
Layer 2 to the Core layer
STP blocks reduandant links
Manual pruning of VLANs for redudancy design
Rely on STP convergence for topology changes
Efficient and stable design

Data Center Topology: The Shifting Traffic Patterns

The traffic patterns have shifted, and the architecture needs to adapt. Before, we focused on 80% leaving the DC, while now, a lot of traffic is going east to west and staying within the DC. The original traffic pattern made us design a typical data center style with access, core, and distribution based on Layer 2, leading to Layer 3 transport. The route you can approach was adopted as Layer 3, which adds stability to Layer 2 by controlling broadcast and flooding domains.

The most popular data architecture in deployment today is based on very different requirements, and the business is looking for large Layer 2 domains to support functions such as VMotion. We need to meet the challenge of future data center applications, and as new apps come out with unique requirements, it isnt easy to make adequate changes to the network due to the protocol stack used. One way to overcome this is with overlay networking and VXLAN.

Overlay networking — Diagram: Overlay Networking with VXLAN

The Issues with Spanning Tree

The problem is that we rely on the spanning tree, which was useful before but is past its date. The original author of the spanning tree is now the author of THRILL ( replacement to STP ). STP ( Spanning Tree Protocol ) was never a routing protocol to determine the best path; it was used to provide a loop-free path. STP is also a fail-open protocol ( as opposed to a Layer 3 protocol that fails closed ).

One of the spanning trees’ most significant weaknesses is their failure to open. If I don’t receive a BPDU ( Bridge Protocol Data Unit ), I assume I am not connected to a switch and start forwarding on that port. Combining a fail-open paradigm with a flooding paradigm can be disastrous.

STP va Routing Blocking Links

Next, let’s address the Spanning Tree Protocol on a network of 3 switches. STP is there to help, but in some cases, it blocks specific ports based on the default configuration or by the administrator forcing traffic to get a certain way. Either way, you can lose bandwidth. It is easy to demonstrate this by looking at three switches in the diagram. You would want all of these links in a forwarding state, but with STP, one of the links is blocked to prevent loops.

Since the spanning tree is enabled, all our switches will send a unique frame to each other called a BPDU (Bridge Protocol Data Unit). The spanning tree requires two pieces of information in this BPDU: the MAC address and Priority. Together, the MAC address and priority make up the bridge ID.

The spanning tree requires the bridge ID for its calculation. Let me explain how it works:

First, a spanning tree will elect a root bridge; this root bridge will have the best “bridge ID.”
The switch with the lowest bridge ID is the best one.
The priority is 32768 by default, but we can change this value.

So, who will become the root bridge? In our example, SW1 will become the root bridge! The bridge ID is made up of priority and MAC address. Since all switches have the same priority, the MAC address will be the tiebreaker. SW1 has the lowest MAC address, thus the best bridge ID, and will become the root bridge. The ports on our root bridge are always designated, which means they are forwarding.

Above, you see that SW1 has been elected as the root bridge, and the “D” on the interfaces stands for designated.

Now we have agreed on the root bridge, our next step for all our “non-root” bridges (so that’s every switch that is not the root) will be to find the shortest path to our root bridge! The shortest path to the root bridge is called the “root port.” Take a look at my example:

VPC for Nexus Data Centers

Port States:

If you have played with some Cisco switches before, you might have noticed that every time you plugged in a cable, the LED above the interface was orange and, after a while, became green. What is happening at this moment is that the spanning tree is determining the state of the interface; this is what happens as soon as you plug in a cable:

The port is in listening mode for 15 seconds. In this phase, it will receive and send BPDUs but not learn MAC addresses or transmit data.
The port is in learning mode for 15 seconds. We are still sending and receiving BPDUs, but now the switch will also learn MAC addresses. There is still no data transmission, though.
Now we go into forwarding mode, and finally, we can transmit data!

How does this compare to routing? With layer 3, we have a TTL, meaning we can stop loops as long as there is no complicated route redistribution at different points in the network topology. Let’s look at the following example, which uses RIP.

RIP is a distance vector routing protocol and the simplest one. We’ll start by paying attention to the distance vector class. What does the name distance vector mean?

- Distance: How far away? In the routing world, we use metrics.
- Vector: Which direction? In the routing world, we care about which interface and the next router’s IP address to send the packet to.

Notice below we are not blocking ports. Instead, we are load balancing.

Analysis:

Load-sharing between packets or destinations (actually source/destination IP address pairs) is supported by Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) without performance degradation (without CEF, per-packet load-sharing requires process switching). Even though there is no performance impact on the router, per-packet load sharing almost always results in out-of-order packets. As a result of packet reordering, TCP throughput might be reduced in high-speed environments (per-packet load-sharing improves per-flow throughput in low-speed/few-flow scenarios) or applications that cannot survive out-of-order packet delivery, for example, Fast Sequenced Transport for SNA over IP or voice/video streams, may suffer.

Use the ip load-sharing per-packet interface configuration command to configure per-packet load-sharing (the default is per destination). This command must be used to configure all outgoing interfaces where traffic is load-shared.

STP has a bad reputation

STP, in theory, prevents bridging loops. Many reasons contribute to STP’s lousy reputation in practice.

You must accept that design choice if you prefer plug-and-pray networking over proper routing protocols. There is little we can do in this situation. To use alternate paths, you need an appropriate routing protocol, regardless of whether you’re routing on layer 2 (TRILL, SPB) or layer 3 (IP). Forward-on behavior is one of the main problems with STP. All links forward traffic until BPDUs block some of them.

A forwarding loop is almost certain to occur if a device drops BPDUs or if a switch loses its control plane (for example, due to a memory leak).

Design a Scalable Data Center Topology

To overcome the limitation, some are now trying to route ( Layer 3 ) the entire way to the access layer, which has its problems, too, as some applications require L2 to function, e.g., clustering and stateful devices—however, people still like Layer 3 as we have stability around routing. You have an actual path-based routing protocol managing the network, not a loop-free protocol like STP, and routing also doesn’t fail to open and prevents loops with the TTL ( Time to Live ) fields in the headers.

Convergence routing around a failure is quick and improves stability. We also have ECMP ( Equal Cost Multi-Path) paths to help with scaling and translating to scale-out topologies. This allows the network to grow at a lower cost. Scale-out is better than scale-up.

Whether you are a small or large network, having a routed network over a Layer 2 network has clear advantages. However, how we interface with the network is also cumbersome, and it is estimated that 70% of network failures are due to human errors. The risk of changes to the production network leads to cautious changes, slowing processes to a crawl.

In summary, the problems we have faced so far;

STP-based Layer 2 has stability challenges; it fails to open. Traditional bridging is controlled flooding, not forwarding, so it shouldn’t be considered as stable as a routing protocol. Some applications require Layer 2, but people still prefer Layer 3. The network infrastructure must be flexible enough to adapt to new applications/services, legacy applications/services, and organizational structures.

There is never enough bandwidth, and we cannot predict future application-driven requirements, so a better solution would be to have a flexible network infrastructure. The consequences of inflexibility slow down the deployment of new services and applications and restrict innovation.

The infrastructure needs to be flexible for the data center applications, not the other way around. It must also be agile enough not to be a bottleneck or barrier to deployment and innovation.

What are the new options moving forward?

Layer 2 fabrics ( Open standard THRILL ) change how the network works and enable a large routed Layer 2 network. A Layer 2 Fabric, for example, Cisco FabricPath, is Layer 2; it acts more than Layer 3 as it’s a routing protocol-managed topology. As a result, there is improved stability and faster convergence. It can also support massive ( up to 32 load-balanced forwarding paths versus a single forwarding path with Spanning Tree ) and scale-out capabilities.

VXLAN: Overlay networking

What is VXLAN?

Suppose you already have a Layer 3 core and must support Layer 2 end to end. In that case, you could go for an Encapsulated Overlay ( VXLAN, NVGRE, STT, or a design with generic routing encapsulation). You have the stability of a Layer 3 core and the familiarity of a Layer 2 core but can service Layer 2 end to end using UDP port numbers as network entropy. Depending on the design option, it builds an L2 tunnel over an L3 core.

Example: Encrypted GRE with IPsec

Understanding Encrypted GRE

GRE, or Generic Routing Encapsulation, is a network protocol commonly used to encapsulate and transport different network layer protocols over an IP network. It provides a virtual point-to-point connection, allowing the transmission of data between different sites or networks. However, without encryption, the data transmitted through GRE is vulnerable to interception and unauthorized access. This is where encrypted GRE with IPSec comes into play.

IPSec, or Internet Protocol Security, is a suite of protocols used to secure IP communications by authenticating and encrypting the data packets. It provides a secure tunnel between two endpoints, ensuring the transmitted data’s confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity. By combining IPSec with GRE, organizations can create a safe and private communication channel over an untrusted network.

a. Enhanced Data Privacy: With encrypted GRE and IPSec, organizations can ensure the privacy of their data while transmitting it over public or untrusted networks. The encryption algorithms used in IPSec provide high security, making it extremely difficult for unauthorized parties to decipher the transmitted information.

b. Secure Communication: Encrypted GRE with IPSec establishes a secure tunnel between endpoints, protecting the integrity of the data. It prevents tampering, replay attacks, and other malicious activities, ensuring the information reaches its destination without any unauthorized modifications.

c. Flexibility and Compatibility: Encrypted GRE with IPSec can be implemented across various network environments, making it a versatile solution. It is compatible with different operating systems, routers, and firewalls, allowing organizations to integrate it seamlessly into their existing network infrastructure.

Back to VXLAN

A use case for this will be if you have two devices that need to exchange state at L2 or require VMotion. VMs cannot migrate across L3 as they need to stay in the same VLAN to keep the TCP sessions intact. Software-defined networking is changing the way we interact with the network.

It provides faster deployment and improved control. It changes how we interact with the network and has more direct application and service integration. With a centralized controller, you can view this as a policy-focused network.

Many prominent vendors will push within the framework of converged infrastructure ( server, storage, networking, centralized management ) all from one vendor and closely linking hardware and software ( HP, Dell, Oracle ). While other vendors will offer a software-defined data center in which physical hardware is virtual, centrally managed, and treated as abstraction resource pools that can be dynamically provisioned and configured ( Microsoft ).

Summary: SDN Data Center

In the dynamic landscape of technology, data centers play a crucial role in storing, processing, and delivering digital information. Traditional data centers have limitations, but the emergence of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has revolutionized how data centers operate. In this blog post, we delved into the world of SDN data centers, exploring their benefits, key components, and potential implications.

Understanding SDN

SDN, in essence, separates the control plane from the data plane, enabling centralized network management through software. Unlike traditional networks, where network devices make individual decisions, SDN allows for a more programmable and flexible infrastructure. By abstracting the network’s control, SDN empowers administrators to manage and orchestrate their data centers dynamically.

Key Components of SDN Data Centers

It is crucial to grasp the critical components of SDN data centers to comprehend their inner workings. The SDN architecture comprises three fundamental elements: the Application Layer, Control Layer, and Infrastructure Layer. The Application Layer houses the software applications that utilize the network services, while the Control Layer handles network-wide decisions and policies. Lastly, the Infrastructure Layer comprises the physical and virtual network devices that forward data packets.

Advantages of SDN Data Centers

The adoption of SDN in data centers brings forth a myriad of advantages. Firstly, SDN enables network programmability, allowing administrators to configure and manage their networks through software interfaces. This flexibility reduces manual configuration efforts and enhances overall efficiency. Secondly, SDN data centers boast improved scalability, as the centralized control plane simplifies network expansion and resource allocation. Additionally, SDN enhances network security by enabling fine-grained control and real-time threat detection.

Potential Implications and Challenges

While SDN data centers offer numerous benefits, addressing potential implications and challenges is crucial. One concern is the potential risk of a single point of failure in the centralized control plane. Network disruptions or software vulnerabilities could significantly impact the entire data center. Moreover, transitioning from traditional networks to SDN requires careful planning, as it involves reconfiguring the existing infrastructure and training network administrators to adapt to the new paradigm.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has paved the way for a new era of data centers. By separating the control and data planes, SDN empowers administrators to programmatically manage their networks programmatically, leading to enhanced flexibility, scalability, and security. Despite the challenges and potential implications, SDN data centers hold immense potential for transforming the way we architect and operate modern data centers.

Application Traffic Steering

Highlights: Application Traffic Steering

Understanding Application Traffic Steering:

Understanding Squid Proxy

Techniques for Application Traffic Steering

Example: Load Balancing with HAProxy

Google Cloud NEGs

Understanding Load Balancing in Google Cloud

Understanding SD-WAN Traffic Steering

Understanding EIGRP Load Balancing

Understanding BGP AS Prepend

Advanced Topics

Shortest-path routing

SDN-based Architecture

The role of OpenFlow

Understanding OpenFlow Traffic Steering

Implementing OpenFlow Traffic Steering

The Role of Load Balancers:

Multicast Traffic Steering

Lab Guide on IGMPv1

Traditional Layer 2 and Layer 3 Service Insertion

Example: Traditional Layer 2

Example: Layer 3 Service Insertion

Application traffic steering, service function chaining, and dynamic service insertion

Traffic tromboning

SDN Adoption

Summary: Application Traffic Steering

SDN Data Center

Highlights: SDN Data Center

SDN Data Center

Google Cloud Data Centers

Recap on SDN Principles

Google Cloud Data Centers

vCenter Server

SDN Data Center

The Future of Data Centers

Statistics don’t lie.

The Value: SDN Topology

STP va Routing Blocking Links

Summary: SDN Data Center

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