Distributed vSwitch Controller overview

In addition to the standard Linux bridge, XenServer 6.0 supports Open vSwitch—it is a production quality, multilayer virtual switch licensed under the open source Apache 2.0 license. It is designed to enable massive network automation through programmatic extension, and supports standard management interfaces and protocols such as NetFlow or IEEE 802.1ag.

Note

You can find more information on Open vSwitch at the following web address: http://openvswitch.org/.

The Open vSwitch is enabled by default in XenServer 6.0. In order to provide a centralized administration of the virtualized networking configuration based on the "vSwitch" and other features, such as Quality of Service (QoS) policies or cross-server private networks, Citrix has developed a virtual appliance known as Distributed vSwitch Controller that you can install and configure in your XenServer environment.

Deploying the Distributed vSwitch Controller

The Distributed vSwitch (DVS) Controller...