Introduction

As discussed in the first chapter, virtualization and cloud computing are pushing the network boundary from the physical network to the virtual network. The non-virtualized physical servers are connected to the physical network switches for connectivity. The shift from physical to virtual networking implies that the virtual machines should be connected to the virtual switches for connectivity.

In order to allow the multiple networking technologies to interoperate, Neutron uses the concept of plugins. The Modular Layer 2 (ML2) is a type of core plugin that supports multiple drivers so that the plugin functionality can be extended and customized. The ML2 plugin comprises of type drivers and mechanism drivers.

Open vSwitch, popularly referred to as OVS, is one of the implementations of the virtual switches for the Linux platforms. It is an open source, production quality, virtual switch that supports the rich networking protocols and features.

In order to implement these recipes,...