Cisco and VMware Validated Architecture for Long Distance VMotion
So, since we initially demo-ed an inter-data center VMotion solution and CiscoLive!, we have been working dilligently with VMware to develop and refine the solution. Inter-data center workload mobility has a lot of moving parts involved. Essentially, you need to be able to address three areas:
- Mobility at layer 2
- Mobility of the data, since there is seldom value in moving the workload if it loses access to the data it needs
- Mobility at layer 3 and of services
The work with VMware to date has focused on formalizing solution requirements, establishing a solution roadmap and developing a reference architecture. Work has progressed to the point that we can jointly publish a reference architecture for for the first phase of the solution, which addresses both layer 2 mobility and data mobility.
The joint solution essentially allows you to cluster data centers that are up to 200km apart and move virtual machines between them as if they were part of the same vSphere cluster. The solution lends itself to workload mobility amongst data centers, as well as simplifying consolidation, migration, and maintenance. Paired with Storage VMotion or active/active replication storage models, the Cisco/VMware solution helps customer implement a significantly improved disaster avoidance strategy. Looking at the jointly validated architecture below, one of the cooler things to point out is that, for Cisco customers, at least, the solution builds upon the gear they probably already have in place. 
For more details, Cisco and VMware have jointly published a white paper the details the solution criteria, the validated design, and the testing results. For those of you that are here at VMworld 2009, check out session TA3105 this Wednesday at 4:30 or simply drop by the booth (#2118) for a demo.
So, what’s next? Well, once VMworld is done, the team will get back to work on the solution roadmap. Next items on hit list are cloud import/export and support for follow-the-sun computing models. Stay tuned for more details.
Posted by Omar Sultan at 09:43PM PST
joseph Sep 10, 2009
If you are sharing the same vlan between data centers who/what/how do you determine the appropriate “default gateway” for devices at both sides ?