Persistent Virtual Network Configuration

How can a virtual server maintain its network connection when it is migrated to a new physical host?

Problem

When a virtual server is moved from one physical host to another, it loses its original network configurations, resulting in loss of network connectivity until the original configurations are recreated on the destination host.

Solution

The virtual server network configuration data is stored in a centralized location and replicated to the physical hosts, which makes it available to the destination host.

Application

The VIM is used to create and configure the virtual switch and to replicate the configuration data across the physical hosts.

Mechanisms

Hypervisor, Logical Network Perimeter, Physical Uplink, Resource Replication, Virtual Infrastructure Manager, Virtual Server, Virtual Switch

Compound Patterns

Burst In, Burst Out to Private Cloud, Burst Out to Public Cloud, Cloud Authentication, Cloud Balancing, Elastic Environment, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Isolated Trust Boundary, Multitenant Environment, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Private Cloud, Public Cloud, Resilient Environment, Resource Workload Management, Secure Burst Out to Private Cloud/Public Cloud, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

A virtual switch’s configuration settings are maintained by the VIM, which ensures that these settings are replicated to other physical servers. The centralized virtual switch is published and each of physical server hosts is assigned some of its ports. When Physical Server A fails, the virtual server is moved to Physical Server B. Because its network settings are stored on a centralized virtual switch shared by both physical servers, it is retrieved and the virtual server maintains network connectivity on its new host.

NIST Reference Architecture Mapping

This pattern relates to the highlighted parts of the NIST reference architecture, as follows: