Hyper-V 2016 New Features – Network (Part 1)

Hyper-V is the Microsoft’s virtualization platform that allows creating virtual infrastructures under Windows and/or Linux (Hyper-V 2016 Overview and Architecture Guide). Hyper-V 2016 version has been improved by Microsoft then they released a lot of new features such as network, installation mode, Nano Server, Virtual Machines and Security, administration, Nested Virtualization, QoS for storage, rolling Hyper-V Cluster upgrade, improved ReFS (Resilient File System), and virtual hard disk. Here’s the post to introduce Hyper-V 2016 New Features – Network.

Original Network - Hyper-v 2016

AOAC and Power-on Standby:

Once Hyper-V role is enabled on a server using the AOAC (Always-On/Always-Connected) power model, the “power-on standby” power state is now available.

Network – Switch SET (Switch Embedded Teaming):

Switch Embedded Teaming” is an alternative to classic “NIC Teaming” mode (network cards aggregation). It can be used to aggregate network adapters directly at the VMSwitch layout when the Virtual Switch is created. It allows a better performance at the network level, especially for fault tolerance. It now possible to converge SMB storage traffic with other network traffic, and use Virtual Receive Side Scaling (VRSS), VMQueue (Virtual Machine Queue), DCB (DataCenter Bridging) as well as RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) directly into the parent partition. This mode is not available for Virtual Machines but only for Hyper-V hosts.

In Windows Server 2012 R2, using “RDMA” and Hyper-V on the same server with the network adapters that provide RDMA services can not be linked to a Hyper-V virtual switch. This increases the number of physical network adapters that must be installed on the Hyper-V host. In Windows Server 2016, you can use the least number of network adapters when using RDMA with or without “SET”.

The schema below shows the difference between the architecture of Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016:

RDMA Architecture

The Virtual Machine Multi Queues (VMQ) provides improvements in network bit rates, it allocates several hardware queues per virtual machine, the traffic is distributed between the different queues. SET always presents the total number of queues that are available across all SET team members. In NIC Teaming, this is called Sum-of-Queues mode.

It is now possible to apply quality of service in order to optimize network flows. The Software Defined Network (SDN) is a mode used to centralize the management, configuration and monitoring of network elements, which means: software management of the entire network at the level of several layers (routing, switching, firewall etc.) through orchestration platforms and centrally managed automation.

A new type of Virtual Switch is available: NAT. This type of switch has been created for Windows containers, but it can also be used for Virtual Machines. So, Virtual Machines have their internal addressing, then to connect to the outside world and the Internet, VMs use the traditional mechanisms of NAT (Network Address Translation).

Note: You can also install now Hyper-V 2016 on Windows Nano Server and on Windows 8, 8.1 and 10.

Come back for the second part (Hyper-V 2016 New Features – Virtual Machines)!

 

Veeam’s post: Benefits of ReFS file system in Windows Server 2016

Hyper-V upgrade from Windows 2012 R2 to 2016: Guide.

If you need to disable UAC Server on Windows Server 2016 Script Guide.

Veeam Agent for Windows step by step installation guide.

Video Recording of my webinar Veeam and Windows Server 2016: video link.

Recommending to read an E-book “All You Need to Know About Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Virtualization” by Clint Wyckoff (Veeam’s Blogger)to stay tuned with the technology changes that will have a great impact on Hyper-V.

 

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