Sufficient planning and preparation work, with regard to networking, can turn days of configuration for a large deployment into something that you can achieve in a matter of hours. In this section, we consider some of the steps that you might take to ensure that you are ready to set up networking with more ease.
Since the logical network constructs within Oracle VM are comprised by combining a variety of individual components, or building blocks, into whatever network infrastructure you need, it makes sense to take the time to identify each of these components and gather any information that may be required while you attempt to map these components into virtual constructs within Oracle VM Manager. You may find that maintaining a spreadsheet of this information helps you to prepare and properly plan for your deployment.
Before you begin, using the information provided in Section 5.6, “How are Network Functions Separated in Oracle VM?”, you should determine how much network separation you require within your deployment and what different networks you want to make use of. Remember, that in a test or demonstration environment, it is perfectly acceptable to use a single network to cater to all of your networking requirements. In a production level deployment, it is desirable to provide as much network separation as possible to ensure the best possible performance for the components that are used in an Oracle VM environment. On the other hand, depending on your networking infrastructure, the number of networks that you create may be limited by the hardware that you have at your disposal. With this in mind, prioritize the different networks based on your requirements and determine which networks may share functions.
Now identify the Oracle VM Servers that you intend to use within your deployment, along with the number of NICs available on each server. Ensure that you understand how they are cabled into your switching infrastructure. This helps to ensure that when you configure network ports in Oracle VM Manager, these ports are connected to your network infrastructure in the way that you expect. Plan how you intend to group servers into server pools. Remember that for each server pool you require a dedicated IP address to act as the server pool Virtual IP (VIP).
The next part of your planning involves selecting the type of network elements that you intend to use to construct your logical networks within Oracle VM for each server pool. Logical network types consist of any of the following:
Networks with ports and/or bonds.
Networks with VLANs only.
Hybrid networks consisting of ports and bonds, and VLANs.
Logical networks on a single server (Intra-Server).
Preparation for each network type can vary both in terms of complexity and in terms of content, since different networking components are involved in each case.
Regardless of the logical network type that you choose to use, you should bear in mind the following general networking rules:
By default the management network interface after an initial installation is created as a network bond called bond0. This interface can have a static or dynamic IP address, but the IP address should remain constant. It is possible to change the management interface, but this requires careful planning as the change may impact other networks used in a deployment.
DHCP can be used to assign IP addresses to any network interface within the deployment, however if you choose to use DHCP for the allocation of IP address information on any of the network interfaces other than the management network interface, you must ensure that a default route is not set for any interface other than the management network interface.
You should never configure more than one interface on the same sub-network. If you do this, the first available interface is selected for all network traffic. If you intend to use multiple network interface cards on the same sub-network, you must set up a bond.