I'd like to let you know about my latest white paper in The Essential Series for Realtime Publishers, available here: http://nexus.realtimepublishers.com/esbpv.php. Please download the paper and support the series. Thanks.
Virtualization has disrupted the IT department and put network administrators in a position to service the technology without full reach into all of the networking components. The virtualization software, which is layered with networks in every virtual machine, puts an uncontrolled piece of network equipment into each host. In The Essentials Series: Best Practices for Virtual Network Management, Eric Beehler offers a strong understanding of virtualization so that IT departments may create a consensus for managing the virtual network.
Understanding the core features of virtual switches is essential to planning and managing them properly. In many ways, they are unique devices and need to be handled differently than traditional switches. Learn those key differences to determine your best path to proper management of the vSwitch.
Network operations needs to address virtualization to understand where it is disrupting existing processes. The technology has the potential to bring greater efficiencies to the network if managed properly, but without an eye towards change the technology can actually cause problems in provisioning, management, and troubleshooting. Learn the approach to these areas of concern to enable virtualization as a true advancement in your data center.
How does the network engineer approach the daily needs of a virtual host? The typical provisioning and escalation of issues will typically center around specific features and configurations in a vSwitch. See what knowledge you need to interact with system administrators to successfully provision and troubleshoot virtual servers.
Eric Beehler (http://consortioservices.com/blog)