Book Image

Mastering KVM Virtualization

Book Image

Mastering KVM Virtualization

Overview of this book

A robust datacenter is essential for any organization – but you don’t want to waste resources. With KVM you can virtualize your datacenter, transforming a Linux operating system into a powerful hypervisor that allows you to manage multiple OS with minimal fuss. This book doesn’t just show you how to virtualize with KVM – it shows you how to do it well. Written to make you an expert on KVM, you’ll learn to manage the three essential pillars of scalability, performance and security – as well as some useful integrations with cloud services such as OpenStack. From the fundamentals of setting up a standalone KVM virtualization platform, and the best tools to harness it effectively, including virt-manager, and kimchi-project, everything you do is built around making KVM work for you in the real-world, helping you to interact and customize it as you need it. With further guidance on performance optimization for Microsoft Windows and RHEL virtual machines, as well as proven strategies for backup and disaster recovery, you’ll can be confident that your virtualized data center is working for your organization – not hampering it. Finally, the book will empower you to unlock the full potential of cloud through KVM. Migrating your physical machines to the cloud can be challenging, but once you’ve mastered KVM, it’s a little easie.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Mastering KVM Virtualization
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Network port mirroring


Open vSwitch supports port mirroring features out-of-the-box. This feature is exactly similar to the port mirroring capability available on the new-generation physical switches. With port mirroring, network administrators can get an insight into what kind of traffic is flowing on the network and implement traffic analysis systems such as IDS/IPS. It is also helpful in troubleshooting network-related issues in the virtual infrastructure.

The basic purpose of port mirroring is to replicate layer 3 traffic flowing from one or more virtual ports to a designated port. It's easy to implement but take the following into consideration before you go ahead and configure it:

  • A virtual machine with port mirroring enabled uses more host CPU and RAM as compared to other virtual ports.

  • Port Mirroring may reduce the network latency if not implemented correctly.

  • Be aware that enabling port mirroring reduces user privacy. Plain passwords will be clearly visible to analysis tools.

Configuring...