Vlans into Hyper-V VM Machines

A couple months I posted about running CentOS under hyper-v and some challenges related to the integration kit (or so I thought).

I recently came across what I was really looking for.

If I want the Linux (Or whatever) VM to have multiple vlans to a single nic into the vm, the solution is not in the GUI. Big shock there. You will find the following powershell command very useful.

Set-VMNetworkAdapterVlan

This command along with it's Get counterpart is very useful yet obscure. This command is like setting the port on the switch to pass the vlans that you want, only this is the virtual hyper-v switch.

Here is the link to the TechNet article explaining it: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh848475.aspx

From the article here is an example:

PS C:\> Set-VMNetworkAdapterVlan -VMName Redmond -Trunk -AllowedVlanIdList 1-100 -NativeVlanId 10

There is the keyword -Trunk. which makes the magic happen. Now if only MS would make reference to the status of the virtual switch port to the vm in GUI this might not have been such an wayward adventure. I believe that VMWare at least show the vlans in the gui. 

Hopefully this little bit of info will help others with this simple but confusing piece of MS setup.

Tallac Networks - Wireless SDN

A week or so ago I received a briefing on Tallac Networks wireless SDN solution. I have been interested in what Tallac was doing in this space since they started. Matthew Davy gave me the briefing. And yes that is the same Matthew Davy from Packet Pushers Episode 40. I was fortunate enough to have an introduction to openflow around the same time as that podcast, maybe sooner, by Matt when he was at IU. Matt had given a talk about a week or so before to members of the state higher edu network, I was unable to attend due to work schedule, there was a stream which didn't work for me. But it was a good thing since Matt spent most of the time doing a basic SDN intro. The room was not very familiar with it.

On to the meat of it. 

Tallac Networks has two major focus:

• Wireless SDN
• SDN Training

They are a major provider of SDN training materials. The training is what provides the cash for the wireless SDN work. Instead of going after major VC funding and then just burning through it.

Their target market is a Managed Service Provider. They have a AWS-Cloud based portal which can be customized for the MSP, then down to the MSP clients. Currently the AP model is a pretty high end 3x3 (I believe) model white box unit. They do have plans for other models. But currently it is a dual radio 3 stream unit. What runs on the ap is what makes the solution:

That is right, the Tallac SDM agent has two components, SDM Cloud Service and an OpenFlow Agent. 

• SDM Cloud Service is the management piece that talks to the cloud service. This is the "traditional" management agent, which ssid, traffic info, radio control etc is sent back and forth from the cloud management instance. 
• OpenFlow Agent, does that mean?? Yes it does. You can attached the AP to an OpenFlow controller (OpenDayLight,Floodlight,etc) and push OpenFlow rules down onto the hardware. I am told that the Openflow controller is/can be separate from the SDM Cloud Service. But what if I'm not ready to use the OpenFlow component? That is ok, too.

Part of the Tallac API/Cloud service is once a site is setup in the portal, meaning Address/Billing info. The hardware can/is ordered through the portal and then is shipped direct from the factory (White box hardware manufacturer) to the site. The AP comes with the Agent loaded and it's identifiers are attached to the site in the portal. This means when the unit is plugged in and talks to the cloud service, it gets attached to the site without user intervention. 

Another feature is an on-demand  network push. Where a SSID & network policy get instantiated based on demand for that network. So if I have a unit at my house which I have configured a corp SSID with a ssl vpn back to the office, when I leave the SSID and ssl vpn get removed from the unit, after the timeout. So corp SSID is not broadcasting at my house when not corporate devices are there. When a device returns and "probes" for that SSID , the policy comes back onto the device. This could be applied inside an enterprise as well.

A list of their features is here: http://www.tallac.com/key-features

A bigger look at the solution stack is here:

The Orchestration API is what brings the pieces together. This allows the multi-tenancy, customization of the end-user interface, etc. Information from other systems can be pulled into the orchestration api to drive policy. The API is used to drive the vNET Manager and NFV components.

This is a basic overview of how Tallac is creating SDN Wireless. Why this is cool is that this solution can function like any other wireless solution out in the market. But they have the added bonus including in the api's and openflow feature that can be used/experimented with will little impact to the operation of the network.

One last note, Matt mention the possibility of a SDN starter kit that they are working on. I think that it is an excellent idea, one that I hope they do release here shortly. I believe in the coming months we will hear more about the work that Tallac is doing in this space.

CentOS 6.5 under Hyper-V - Help Needed

So I have a need to run CentOS 6.5 under Hyper-V and need certain features which are not working.

Why Hyper-V?

• Because we are a mostly MS shop
• Education Licensing
• It is what I have to work with, so dumping it is not an option.

And the Problem is:

CentOS contains LIS 3.1 for Hyper-v. which shows degraded Networking under Hyper-V console. (Upgrade Needed)

LIS 3.5 contains the networking components to do vlans directly on the host.

LIS 3.5 does not install, says it does but component check shows 3.1 versions.

Only workaround is to present the vm multiple NIC's which I would like to avoid.

If you have some validated working instructions or resources please respond in the comments.

Thanks

Update 8/27/2014:
This is normal for the Intergration kit to be off. Things still work. The answer I was looking for can be found here: http://mrfogg97.blogspot.com/2014/08/vlans-into-hyper-v-vm-machines.html

OpenDaylight on Windows - Hydrogen

A couple weeks ago OpenDaylight released Hydrogen, which is the first production release of code. This is a pretty significant milestone as it wasn't that long ago that ODL started.

Now I have detailed getting the controller up and running on windows in a previous post, that was actual building from source.

After a bit of try and fail of running the controller on x86 32-bit windows, I remembered that the Java seemed to run better on x64 version of Windows.

My test system:

Dell 2850 - 4 gig of ram running Windows Server 2008 R2

Installation:

Install Java SE 1.7.0_51

Set JAVA_HOME Environment Variable on system.

 ** Important note ** Use the 8.3 path name  This comes into play when starting the controller from the batch file.

Download pre-built zip file from http://www.opendaylight.org/software/downloads

Unzip into a directory

Open a Command Prompt as Administrator

Change to opendaylight directory in the folder extracted from the zip file.

Type run -start  to start the controller in the background. It takes a little bit before it is ready. If you are impatient like I am, run netstat -a in another command window. When you see localhost is listening on port 8080 you are ready to go.

Then point a web browser to http://localhost:8080

Login as on previous builds: