With the latest release of Beta of SP1, there is a lot of new functionality that needs to get tested 
VMM comes with some new and exciting features.
- Improved Support for Network Virtualization
- Extend the VMM console with Add-ins
- Support for Windows Standards-Based Storage Management Service, thin provisioning of logical units and discovery of SAS storage
- Ability to convert VHD to VHDX, use VHDX as base Operating System image
Requirements:
It requires Windows Server 2012, with ADK for Window 8 installed.
SP1 will also come with support for Windows Server 2012 and therefore it supports the Hyper-V extensible switch, so its allows for NDIS filter drivers (Known as extensions)
So far I know of 3 vendors that are coming with their own extensions
Cisco, NEC and Broadcom.
So now we have a lot more options when defining our infrastructure fabric.
If you open the VMM console now you can see there is a lot more options to choose from.
Now if you compare the old VMM console to the new one you see the difference
(old)
(new)
So if you aren’t familiar with the network fabric in VMM im going to show you.
First of we have Logical Networks
Logical Network is a way of representing networks in your datacenter that have the same connectivity properties (DMZ, public network, Intranet , management). The Network Admin needs to tell SCVMM what VLAN ID belong to each Logical Network so the hosts can be configured to indicate the networks they are connected to. so for instance you could have a logical network for VLAN 791. Or you could add more network sites (For instance Oslo Backend is a Logical Network that has 2 Network sites attached to it VLAN 790, 791)
Mac Address Pools is just a pool of Mac addresses that will be automatic be generated for VM’s, VMM manages the pool so you wouldn’t end up with two identical MAC addresses.
Load Balancers lists up all the installed extensions for load balancers, by default NLB is installed as an extension you can also install one for other vendors such as Citrix or BIG-IP
VIP Templates here you defined load balancing templates (which port, monitor, load balancing methods) For instance you could use a HTTP monitor, which uses HTTP get to see if the web server is alive and you can use least connections as a LB method) Now if you have installed an lb extension VMM can automatically propagate this VIP template to the LB.
Switch Extension Managers here you will list up all the installed extensions for the extensible switch.
Logical Switches is a virtual switch, here you define properties such as extensions, SRV-IO, Uplink ports and Virtual Port profile.
Native Port Profiles consists of two profiles
* Native Uplink Port Profile (Which is attached to a logical network) A native port profile for uplink adapters specifies the settings that must be available on any physical network adapter that the switch is connected to, such as the logical network definitions.
* Virtual Adapter Profile (Which can be attached to a virtual machine or a host) A native port profile for virtual network adapters specifies the settings for the other ports in the switch that virtual machines are connected to, such as I/O bandwidth.
Port Classifications provide a global name for identifying different types of virtual network adapter port profiles
Gateways a network virtualization gateway provides access into and out of a VM network that uses network virtualization. A network virtualization gateway operates in one of the following modes:
- Local network routing The network virtualization gateway routes traffic directly between the VM network and a physical network in the data center.
- Remote network routing The network virtualization gateway first establishes a VPN connection to another endpoint of a site-to-site VPN and then routes traffic in to and out of the VM network through the VPN tunnel.
So how does this all add up ?
Lets start by defining a logical network (which consist of two network sites)
BACKEND
BACKEND – Oslo
- Scoped to the Oslo host group
- Associated subnet and VLAN: 10.0.0.0/24 VLAN 10
BACKEND – Oslo 2
- Scoped to the Oslo 2 host group
- Associated subnet and VLAN: 172.16.0.0/24 VLAN 11
Next we assign that Logical network to a physical network adapter on a host (or hosts)
Next we assign a logical switch to a host (or hosts) which has an Uplink Port Profile which will attach itself to a Logical Network.
But a picture says more then a thousand words so maybe it will be easier to understand
(Not my best Visio but hopefully you understand Here I have one Hyper-V host which is part of Host-group.
I have 2 Logical Switches ( Virtual Switches) which has each one uplink port profile for a VLAN.
Im going to create a new post for more complex architecture and when we add network virtualization to the mix.