Blog :: Network Operations

Support for KVM Virtual Appliances

There is a growing trend of companies moving away from dedicated hardware to a virtualized environment. However, there are many options to create such a network. Windows has Hyper-V, which is part of the Windows Server OS, and VMware has ESX and ESXi to meet the virtualization needs. Plixer supports both of these virtual environments with our NetFlow collector, Scrutinizer. Installation of our solution is as simple as deploying the appropriate package to the hypervisor. With that in mind, we realized we were still missing something; we were missing support for KVM virtual appliances.KVM Virtual Appliances

There exists another widely used hypervisor that we didn’t have support for. Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a virtualization infrastructure for the Linux kernel that turns it into a hypervisor. It was merged into the Linux kernel mainline in kernel version 2.6.20. What makes KVM unique is that a wide variety of guest operating systems work with it (including many flavors of Linux, Solaris, BSD, Windows, Mac OS X, etc.).  Cisco even has a Cisco Nexus 1000V for KVM System Management Configuration Guide (which, by the way, includes a NetFlow configuration guide, giving you visibility into traffic that transits the virtual switch by characterizing IP traffic based on its source, destination, timing, and application information. You can use this information to assess network availability and performance, assist in meeting regulatory requirements (compliance), and help with troubleshooting).

There are many companies that use KVM as their exclusive hypervisor and we didn’t have a package for those environments. Well, that’s changed. In our recent release (16.2), we’ve added a KVM package for our NetFlow collector, NetFlow replicator, and NetFlow probe. This allows companies with such environments to use our solutions to make their networks more secure and obtain the visibility they need.

You can learn more about our NetFlow collector, replicator, and probe by clicking here. Feel free to give our support team a call, if you have any questions; they are an excellent resource for any specific questions you may have about our KVM virtual appliances.