Oracle SDN is a virtual interconnection between servers that speeds up migrating data between servers in the Oracle SDN environment. Servers are connected into one or more Oracle SDN environments through the use of a private virtual interconnect (PVI).
The PVI acts as a virtual network that is overlaid on the IB fabric. When you create a PVI , you can assign one or more VNICs to it. The servers connect to the PVI through those VNICs. When the servers are interconnected, the majority of the traffic is processed by the Oracle SDN components of the host drivers installed on the server, instead of that processing occurring on a GbE I/O module.
Oracle SDN supports lateral traffic (also known as “east-west” traffic) for applications such as vMotion traffic for QDR fabrics. However, for EDR fabrics, Oracle SDN also supports vertical traffic (also known as “north-south” traffic), for example, forwarding traffic off of (or on to) the EDR fabric through a gateway.
Additionally, Oracle SDN benefits traffic between servers or VMs, in the following ways:
Isolated connectivity for server-to-server traffic.
Each PVI in the Oracle SDN provides traffic isolation and security similar to a VLAN. Because VNICs are explicitly assigned to PVI(s), only the servers with those VNICs can communicate on the PVI. Servers that are not on the PVI cannot communicate with servers that are on PVI. In addition, each PVI can support a VLAN configured on top of it, and because the PVI does not consume a VLAN ID, the full range of VLANs is available in your network.
Flexibility and agility for servers and VMs.
Servers or virtual machines are added to and deleted from the Oracle SDN through software commands, so deployment and topology change is accomplished quickly. No cabling or changes to the physical network are required.
Scalability and performance for server-to-server traffic.
Each Oracle SDN environment can support server-to-server traffic at either QDR or EDR speeds assuming corresponding equipment for each data rate. Each Oracle SDN environment can scale out to 64,000 PVIs.
Redundancy and resilience for servers and VMs.
Server connection failures are avoided because traffic is automatically failed over to a separate data path. Because paths are isolated, no path has the ability to impact the other's functionality.
Link failures within the Oracle SDN environment are avoided because traffic is re-routed over the remaining links with no interruption.
Forwarding tables are stored at redundant locations in the Oracle SDN environment and kept in sync, ensuring resilience.