Arista Networks recently introduced an extension of its EOS (Extensible Operating System) software capabilities with Arista VM Tracer.
This new capability uniquely bridges the gap between the physical and virtual networks within a VMware environment through a set of software features that run on the Arista 7000 Family of Cloud Networking Switches. Arista VM Tracer provides networking operators new levels of visibility into the virtualization layer while enabling VMware administrators to have seamless control through the VMware vSphere interface.
Changes in networking and virtualization technologies are increasingly leading to the creation of divergent architectures within IT departments. With the goal of making it operationally simple to converge the management of physical and virtual networks, thus facilitating departmental cooperation, Arista Networks is extending its EOS (Extensible Operating System) software capabilities with Arista VM Tracer.
The use of the VMware vSphere platform to create private clouds and virtual machine farms is becoming mainstream; however, most current network architectures are not responsive to the dynamic segmentation requirements of these new infrastructures. VM Tracer automatically creates, prunes, and opens VLANs (Virtual LANs) across the network infrastructure as new virtual machines are added, moved, or changed. The Arista Cloud Network works in close concert with the VMware vSphere vNetwork virtual networking technology to always keep the network stable, support multi-tenancy, and react in real-time to changes.
VM Tracer provides five key capabilities to the network and virtualization administration teams:
VM Auto Discovery – Find exactly which VMware hosts and VMs are on a given port in the network. Displays the full Physical to Virtual Binding and provides visibility into the network reachability of a given virtual machine and the virtual machine’s state.
VM Adaptive Segmentation – Arista EOS will dynamically create VLANs as they are needed by the virtual machines. If a virtual machine shuts down or is moved, its VLAN(s) can be pruned to preserve bandwidth and CPU cycles for active workloads.
VM Host View – Gives the network administrator visibility into the host with critical information such as: Manufacturer, Processor type, NIC type.
VMware ESX Port Profile – Arista EOS will automatically configure the interface based on the best practice for connecting virtual machines.
VM Tracer Multi-Tenancy – Arista EOS supports connections to up to four separate VMware vCenter administrative domains with VLAN span-of-control per VMware vCenter Server instance. This allows for a single switch to connect to and participate in multiple virtualization domains concurrently. This is ideal for environments with a mix of production and lab services where each is allocated a specific range of VLANs.
VM Tracer is available immediately as a software license within Arista EOS 4.5 and higher, and is priced according to the switching platform on which it is operating.
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