VXLAN is an overlay network technology. Overlay network can be defined as any logical network that is created on top of the existing physical networks. VXLAN creates Layer 2 logical networks on top of the IP network. The following two are key traits of an overlay technology:
– It encapsulates original packets into a new header. For example, IPSec VPN, an overlay technology, encapsulates original IP frame in another IP header.
– Communication is typically established between two tunnel end points. For example, in an IPSec based VPN, which runs on the public internet, the tunnels are established between two sites.
Different components of the VMware’s VXLAN implementation
When you apply those overlay technology traits to VXLAN, you will see that VXLAN encapsulates original MAC frames in to a UDP header (shown below), and all vSphere hosts participating in VXLAN acts as tunnel end points. They are called Virtual Tunnel Endpoints (VTEPs).
VTEPs are the nodes that provide the encapsulation and de-encapsulation function. When we will go through the detail packet flows it will be clear how these VTEPs encapsulate and de-encapsulate traffic from any virtual machine connected to a VXLAN based Layer 2 logical network or virtual wire. The virtual tunnel endpoint (VTEP) configured on every vSphere host consists of the following three modules:
1) VMware Installation Bundle (VIB) or vmkernel module – VTEP functionality is part of the VDS and is installed as a VMware Installation Bundle (VIB). This module is responsible for VXLAN data path processing, which includes maintenance of forwarding tables and encapsulation and de-encapsulation of packets.
2) vmknic virtual adapter – This adapter is used to carry control traffic, which includes response to multicast join, DHCP, and ARP requests. As with any vmknic, a unique IP address is assigned per host. The IP address is used as the VTEP IP while establishing host-to-host tunnels to carry VXLAN traffic.
3) VXLAN port group – This is configured during the initial VXLAN configuration process. It includes physical NICs, VLAN information, teaming policy, and so on. These port group parameters dictate how VXLAN traffic is carried in and out of the host VTEP through the physical NICs.
For more details:- https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2013/04/vxlan-series-different-components-part-1.html
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