Control Interface; Management Interface; Packet Interface; Virtual Ethernet Module - Cisco Nexus 1000V Deployment Manual

The VSM can be installed using either the installer application or a manual installation process. The installer
application and the VSM template (provided for manual installation) help ensure that the VSM virtual machine is
configured with a synthetic network adapter.

Control Interface

The control interface is primarily used for VSM high-availability communication between the primary VSM and the
secondary VSM when high-availability mode is used. This interface handles low-level control packets such as
heartbeats. Because of the nature of the traffic carried over the control interface, this interface is of most
importance in Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch.
Some customers like to keep network management traffic in a network separate from the host management
network. By default, the Cisco Nexus 1000V uses the management interface on the VSM to communicate with the
VEM. However, this communication can be moved to the control interface by configuring server virtualization
switch (SVS) mode to use the control interface. Please refer to the Cisco Nexus 1000V configuration guide for
additional information about how to use the control interface for VSM-to-VEM communication.

Management Interface

The management interface appears as the mgmt0 port on a Cisco switch. As with the management interfaces of
other Cisco switches, an IP address is assigned to mgmt0. Because Layer 2 communication is not supported
between the VSM and the VEM on the Microsoft Hyper-V host as in VMware ESX, the management interface is
used for all VSM-to-VEM communication by default.
The VSM administrator can use the show interface mac address command to see the MAC addresses assigned
to control and management interfaces (Figure 16).
Figure 16. Viewing the MAC Addresses of the Control and Management Interfaces

Packet Interface

The packet interface is a traditional interface on the Cisco Nexus 1000V VSM for Microsoft Hyper-V.

Virtual Ethernet Module

The VEM provides the Cisco Nexus 1000V with network connectivity and forwarding capabilities much like a line
card in a modular switching platform. Unlike multiple line cards in a single chassis, each VEM acts as an
independent switch from a forwarding perspective.
The VEM is tightly integrated with the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor. The VEM is installed as a forwarding
extension to the Microsoft Hyper-V extensible switch that runs in the Microsoft Windows server kernel (Figure 17).
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