Software Defined Networking Technologies
Updated: March 3, 2016
Applies To: Windows Server Technical Preview
The topics in this section provide overview and technical information about the Software Defined Networking technologies that are included in Windows Server® 2016 Technical Preview.
Note
For additional Software Defined Networking documentation, you can use the following library sections.
There are many technologies that work together to create Microsoft's Software Defined Networking (SDN) solutions, including the following:
Hyper-V Network Virtualization
Hyper-V Network Virtualization (HNV) enables virtualization of customer networks on top of a shared physical network infrastructure.
Network Function Virtualization
Network functions that are being performed by hardware appliances (such as load balancers, firewalls, routers, switches, and so on) are increasingly being virtualized as virtual appliances.
Microsoft has virtualized networks, switches, gateways, NATs, load balancers, and firewalls.
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The network controller provides a centralized, programmable point of automation to manage, configure, monitor, and troubleshoot virtual and physical network infrastructure in your datacenter.
RAS Gateway Multitenant BGP Router
RAS Gateway is a software-based, multitenant, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) capable router in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview that is designed for Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and Enterprises that host multiple tenant virtual networks using Hyper-V Network Virtualization.
Software Load Balancing (SLB) for SDN
Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and Enterprises that are deploying Software Defined Networking (SDN) in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview can use Software Load Balancing (SLB) to evenly distribute tenant and tenant customer network traffic among virtual network resources. The Windows Server SLB enables multiple servers to host the same workload, providing high availability and scalability.
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Datacenter Firewall is a new service included with Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview. It is a network layer, 5-tuple (protocol, source and destination port numbers, source and destination IP addresses), stateful, multitenant firewall. When deployed and offered as a service by the service provider, tenant administrators can install and configure firewall policies to help protect their virtual networks from unwanted traffic originating from Internet and intranet networks.
Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) and Switch Embedded Teaming (SET)
You can use a converged NIC to combine both RDMA and Ethernet traffic using a single network adapter. The converged NIC allows you to use a single network adapter for management, Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA)-enabled storage, and tenant traffic. This reduces the capital expenditures that are associated with each server in your datacenter, because you need fewer network adapters to manage different types of traffic per server.
SET is a NIC Teaming solution that is integrated in the Hyper-V Virtual Switch. SET allows the teaming of up to eight physical NICS into a single SET team, which improves availability and provides failover. In Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, you can create SET teams that are restricted to the use of Server Message Block (SMB) and RDMA.
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When configured on a Windows Server® 2016 Technical Preview Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) Gateway, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) provides you with the ability to manage the routing of network traffic between your tenants’ VM networks and their remote sites. BGP reduces the need for manual route configuration on routers because it is a dynamic routing protocol, and automatically learns routes between sites that are connected by using site-to-site VPN connections.
System Center: Deploy Software Defined Networks using Virtual Machine Manager
System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) can be used to deploy and manage many SDN components.