Basic Networking of SCVMM 2012 SP1 Beta

The new Windows Server 2012 has a new feature that supports NIC teaming natively. After configuring Hyper-V NIC teaming on two hosts, I clustered them up. Everything was working well and fine. SCVMM 2012 SP1 beta is required to manage the newly minted Hyper-V cluster.

After setting up the new SCVMM server successfully, adding an existing cluster is easy. I also noticed more networking profiles have to be created before I can roll a new VM.

See the differences? It does look confusing. Fortunately, the System Center team has updated this blog to explain the relationship between various physical and virtual components: Networking in VMM 2012 SP1 – Logical Networks.

Overall SCVMM 2012 SP1 Network Architecture

From Hyper-V Host Perspective

In essence, the steps to create networking in SCVMM 2012 SP1:

1. Start from creating new Logical Networks. Each Logical Network may contain multiple Network Sites. Each site may contain multiple VLANs and IP Subnets.
2. On each Hyper-V host, associate the Virtual Switches (each virtual switch represents a physical NIC on the host) to the respective Logical Networks. 
3. Create VM Network and associate it to a Logical Network.
4. Under the hardware profile of a new VM, connect the new virtual NIC to a VM network. Select the appropriate Virtual Switch available to the parent host.

Example 1: Datacenter network contains 2 VLANs - VLAN 10 and VLAN 20 on Site A and VLAN 30 and VLAN 40 on Site B using VLAN trunking on the underlying physical switches. Create a new logical network named "Data Center Network". In it, add a network site A, then both VLAN 10 and 20. Assign the IP subnet to each VLAN. Add another network site B and add both VLAN 30 and 40 on this network site.

Example 2: Storage network contains 2 physical storage switches without VLAN trunking in both sites. Create a new logical network named "iSCSI Storage Network". In it, add both network site A and network site B. Assign VLAN tag 0 to each network site and assign the relevant IP subnet.

Logical switch and port profile, on the other hand, act as container to consistently configure identical capabilities (e.g. SR-IOV, VMQ, DHCP guards etc) for network adapters across multiple hosts. Instead of configuring individual ports on each host, you can specify the capabilities in port profiles and logical switches and apply them to the appropriate adapters.