VMware architecture

The Fabric Services System introduces a new component in a VMware vSphere environment to allow the management of the SR Linux based fabric through VMware vCenter. Below is an overview of the architecture.

Figure 1. VMware architecture

The Connect VMware vSphere plugin

The Connect VMware vSphere plugin is a micro-service which is deployed inside the Fabric Services System environment itself. After deploying the plugin itself, connections to different VMware vCenter environments can be set up through the creation of Deployments within the plugin. This is done through the Connect Service API.

Once a VMware Plugin has been setup to a VMware vCenter environment, it will connect to that vCenter and listen for events for the following objects in VMware vCenter:

  • Distributed vSwitch management
  • Port Group management
  • Host to dVS associations
  • SR-IOV Configuration
  • SR-IOV enabled Virtual Machine boot and shutdown

The plugin only uses a read-only user for these activities.

Note:

The Connect VMware vSphere plugin supports up to a maximum of 2 different VMware vCenter deployments. This will be increased in the future.