Y’all See This? – Nexus 1000v Architecture Write Up

Not sure when I came across this, and how late to the game I am on it, but alas, cleaning out my Firefox tabs today I came across a deployment diagram for the Nexus 1000v on ESX4:

Some key observations of importance:

    * The version of ESX running here is ESX 4.0 (not yet released)
    * The Nexus 1000V software on the physical server acts like a line card of a modular switch, described as a VEM (virtual ethernet module)
    * The Nexus 1000V VEM is a direct replacement of the VMWare vSwitch function
    * The Nexus 1000V VSM (virtual supervisor module) acts like the supervisor engine of a modular switch
    * One Nexus 1000V VSM instance manages a single ESX cluster of up to 64 physical servers
    * The form factor of Nexus 1000V VSM can be a physical appliance or a virtual machine
    * The network administrator manages the Cisco Nexus 1000V (from the VSM) as a single distributed virtual switch for the entire ESX cluster
    * Each virtual machine connects to its own Virtual Ethernet (vEthernet) port on the Nexus 1000V providing the network administrator traffic visibility and policy control on a per virtual machine basis.  Virtual machines can now be managed like physical servers in terms of their network connectivity.

Original post here.