Libro sobre Proxmox maestria
Network of Virtual Networks
Do not worry if the virtualization diagram is overwhelming at first glance. We will learn about all the components used in both diagrams later on. Both diagrams are in basic form. Some non-relevant components may have been omitted to keep the diagrams simpler.
Before we dive into virtual network building blocks, we need to understand how networks are set up in the preceding diagrams. Both the diagrams represent the same office setup where the main administrative department is on the second floor, and the accounting department is on the fourth floor of the building. It is apparent from the diagrams that a physical network is undoubtedly simpler than a virtual network, but by leveraging virtualization, we can cut cost, increase efficiency, reduce hardware maintenance complexity, and increase portability.
In the first diagram of the physical network, there is no virtualization platform set up. The whole network is set up with physical devices, such as firewalls, switches, servers, and full desktops. Each department has its own servers and separate networks. A centralized management for the whole company does not exist. This is a costly solution due to all the physical hardware. If redundancy is a requirement, it will incur twice the cost since we will need identical physical servers. All connectivity in this network is done with physical cable links. Backups in this setup are quite challenging since all the physical servers in two departments have to be backed up individually.
The virtual network diagram represents how Proxmox can handle a multidepartment setup. All connections between servers and the user's virtual machines happen virtually without a physical network device. Using virtual bridges and vNICS, both the administrative and accounting departments can coexist on the same Proxmox cluster. Since all computing happens in the hypervisor, end users can have thin workstations to minimize cost significantly. Users connect to their virtual machines with remote protocols, such as SPICE, VNC, or RDP.
Thin workstations are very underpowered, cheap, basic computers for the end user. Since all processing happens in a virtual environment, thin workstations do not need to be very powerful. The main purpose of a thin workstation is to allow the user to connect peripherals such as the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and network cable. A thin workstation can be purchased under $200.