Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V

Extensible Switch and Cisco

Nexus 1000V Series Switches
Streamlining Virtual Networks in the Data Center
A Microsoft/Cisco White Paper
May 2012

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

Table of contents
Copyright information ...................................................................... 3
Introduction .......................................................................................... 4
Working Together: Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches.......... 4

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch .................. 5

Five New Native Policy Features in the Hyper-V Extensible Switch ....................................................... 6
New Extension Classes for the Hyper-V Extensible Switch......................................................................... 7
Extensibility and the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch ............................................. 7
Efficient Management with Microsoft System Center 2012 ...................................................................... 8
Providing an Efficient, Flexible Switch for Virtual Networks....................................................................... 9

Cisco Virtual Networking Solutions .............................................. 9

Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches ........................................................................................................................ 9
Cisco UCS VM-FEX .........................................................................................................................................................10
Reducing Complexity, Increasing Benefits in Virtual Networks .............................................................11

Microsoft and Cisco: Providing Advanced Choices for

Virtual Networking ........................................................................... 12
Extending Network Functions to Hyper-V with Nexus 1000V Series Switches .............................12
Extending a Physical Network to Hyper-V Virtual Machines with the Cisco VM-FEX................14

Conclusion .......................................................................................... 15
For More Information...................................................................... 15
List of charts, tables, and figures ................................................ 16

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

Copyright information
2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This document is provided "as-is." Information and
views expressed in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, may change
without notice. You bear the risk of using it. This document does not provide you with any legal rights to
any intellectual property in any Microsoft product. You may copy and use this document for your internal,
reference purposes. You may modify this document for your internal, reference purposes.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

Introduction
The growth of virtualization technologies in
enterprises and data centers is one of todays key IT
trends. IT professionals are looking more and more
to virtualization to help control costs, create greater
efficiencies in meeting business demands, and
innovate with solutions such as private clouds.

At a Glance: Windows Server

2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch
Provides an open platform for easy
development of extensions

Readily available APIs for quick solution

Windows Server, which powers many of the worlds
development
largest data centers and enterprise IT systems, has
been at the forefront of giving organizations the
Only virtual switch that can be extended
tools to create, deploy, and manage virtual
without requiring rewrite of entire switch
networks, virtual machines, and complete virtual
Easily managed using standard tools
environments. A core Windows Server component
that supports virtualization is Hyper-V, which first
shipped with early versions of Windows Server 2008. Hyper-V has been updated and enhanced with
Windows Server 2012; now organizations have an even better foundation for advanced virtualization tasks
and scenarios, such as extensive server consolidation, delivering secure multitenancy for hosting different
customers on physical servers, and creating private clouds.
One of the core features in Hyper-V is the new Hyper-V Extensible Switch. As its name implies, a central
feature of this switch is its extensibility. Hyper-V Extensible Switch offers an open platform that lets third
parties create software that adds to or extends the capabilities of a virtual switch. It provides a standard
application programming interface (API) to make solution development easier and faster for IT
departments and third-party independent software vendors (ISVs).
The Hyper-V Extensible Switch delivers management capabilities that streamline IT tasks by integrating
physical and virtual network management tasks. It also integrates tightly with the Virtual Machine
Manager component of Microsoft System Center 2012 for advanced virtual network management
functions.

Working Together: Hyper-V

Extensible Switch and Cisco
Nexus 1000V Series
Switches

At a Glance: Cisco Virtual

Networking Solutions
Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches:
Market-leading virtual switches used by
organizations worldwide to extend
comprehensive networking capabilities to
their virtualized environments

Cisco UCS VM-FEX: Delivers near baremetal performance for virtualized workloads
In developing the Hyper-V Extensible Switch,
and a streamlined management model
Microsoft worked closely with Cisco Systems, the
world leader in networking technology. The Cisco
Nexus 1000V Series Switches and the Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) Virtual Machine Fabric
Extender (VM-FEX) have been widely adopted by enterprises to deliver advanced networking features for
their virtual environments.
Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

Now, Microsoft and Cisco are providing enterprises and data centers with the combined power of the
Hyper-V Extensible Switch and the Cisco networking technology to deliver advanced networking features
to virtual environments running on Windows Server 2012. Customers using Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V
can choose the Cisco solution that best suits their needs: either the software-based Nexus 1000V Series
Switches, or the hardware-based UCS VM-FEX solution, which offers simplified management and near
bare-metal input/output (I/O) performance.
This paper provides an overview of the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and the Cisco
technologies. It provides a general discussion of the key benefits for customers in using these
technologies together, including the ease of adding extensions, migrating switches and virtual machines,
and working in a unified management environment. It also provides at-a-glance descriptions of common
scenarios.

Windows Server 2012

Hyper-V Extensible Switch
The demand for virtualization technologies is growing at a fast and accelerating pace. The reasons for the
trend are apparent to IT professionals and business users alike.
The traditional model of fixed physical server assets brings with it potentially high up-front expenses and
significant maintenance costs. It also lacks flexibility and scalability, whether that means ramping up to
meet demand, or scaling back and consolidating to save money on idle hardware.
With virtualized server environments, on the other hand, IT departments can achieve many technical and
financial benefits when responding to constantly shifting business needs. Windows Server 2012 not only
helps enterprises and data centers with basic virtualization projects, but it also helps organizations to
move beyond virtualization to support advanced scenarios, such as the development of private clouds
for specific departments and initiatives, and running more virtual machines on a single physical server for
greater efficiencies. With Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, organizations benefit from enormous scalability,
flexibility, and speed for IT departments that need to respond to shifting business needs while
simultaneously controlling costs and overhead.
One of the key elements of virtual environments is the configuration and management of virtual networks.
Previous editions of the Windows Server Hyper-V virtual switch provided essential virtual networking
tasks, such as handling network traffic between virtual and physical networks and the host operating
system. Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 delivers a number of new and enhanced features that improve
virtual networking operations.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

Five New Native Policy Features in the Hyper-V

Extensible Switch
Microsoft has added native policy features to Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V that enhance virtual
environments. These improvements affect the following five areas of virtual network operations:

Traffic Isolation and Flow

Port access control lists (ACLs). ACLs are used to allow or deny specific addresses to move through the
network.
Private virtual LANs (PVLANs). These let IT administrators establish a gateway without the need to
define a strong two-tier network.
Trunk mode. Previously, when Hyper-V sent VLAN traffic to a virtual machine, it could only choose a
single VLAN per virtual machine. Trunk mode in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V allows multiple VLANs
to be used on a virtual machine network adapter.

Traffic Shaping
Quality of Service (QoS). QoS is used to set minimum and maximum bandwidth levels by using
absolute or relative amounts. QoS can be used to guarantee minimum levels of bandwidth to
customers to meet service level agreements, and also to minimize or prevent excessive usage by
specific clients.

Security
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) guard. This is used to control whether or not a virtual
machine is allowed to behave as a DHCP server, which can help prevent network attacks involving the
deliberate misuse of addresses.
IP security (IPsec) task offloads. This enables virtual machines to offload IPsec encryption directly to the
IPsec offload engine on a network adapter.

Performance Enhancements
Dynamic virtual machine queues (VMQs). Windows Server 2012 provides support for dynamic VMQs,
which adjust the number of cores used by the host virtual switch base on traffic load.
Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV). SR-IOV accelerates performance by letting network traffic go
directly to a virtual machine.

Diagnostics
Port mirroring. This provides the ability to copy traffic from multiple virtual machines to multiple port
switches, which can help in identifying network issues.
Event Tracing for Windows (ETW). ETW helps IT managers to easily diagnose issues with a switch and
related extensions without having to use a debugger.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

New Extension Classes for the Hyper-V Extensible Switch

In addition to the policy features listed
above, Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V
now includes three extension class
types that are typically found on

Figure 1: The Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible

Switch comes with three native extensions that support
essential virtual networking activities

physical network switches:

Capturing. Capture extensions can
inspect traffic and generate new
traffic for report purposes. They
cannot modify existing switch
traffic. Multiple capture extensions
can be present on the same switch.
Filtering. Hyper-V now includes the
Windows Filtering Platform (WFP).
WFP extensions are commonly used
in antivirus and firewall scenarios,
and can be used to change traffic in
a switch, such as dropping packets,
modifying packet contents, and
blocking delivery to specific destinations. Filtering extensions can be implemented by using Network
Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) APIs. As with capture extensions, multiple WFP extensions can be
on the same switch.
Forwarding. Forwarding extensions are used for computing the destination of each packet. They can
do everything that capturing and filtering extensions do. There can only be one instance of a
forwarding extension per switch instance.

Extensibility and the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V

Extensible Switch
During development of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, Microsoft listened closely to customer and partner
requests for new features and functionality that could help streamline the creation and deployment of
virtual networks. A significant pain point for IT departments is finding easier, less disruptive ways of
adding virtual tenant security, isolation, traffic shaping, and network intelligence to their data center
deployments. Virtual switch extensions should help them accomplish these tasks, but installing those
extensions can be a challenge.
The process of adding software-based functionality to virtual switches has always meant rewriting the
entire switch. This is cumbersome and time-consuming, and frequently discourages enterprise developers
and third-party ISVs from innovating with solutions that can address specific tasks and issues.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

Microsoft is the first vendor to truly address this issue with the new Hyper-V Extensible Switch, which
comes with an open platform that has easily accessible APIs and an efficient path for adding new
functions to the switch. Today, the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch is the only virtual
switch on the market that is extensible instead of being only replaceable. With the Hyper-V Extensible
Switch, ISVs and enterprise developers creating virtual appliances and functionality can create their
extensions and simply plug them into the existing switch.
Several key aspects of the Hyper-V Extensible Switch set it apart from the competition and deliver more
benefits to enterprise IT professionals and ISVs:
Open, accessible platform with a public API. The Hyper-V Extensible Switch provides an open
platform that uses a public API that is readily available for download from the Microsoft Developer
Network (MSDN) website. For developers, this opens the door to new solutions that deliver just the
functionality that they want to create. For IT departments, the flexibility and simplicity provided by the
open platform and API mean smaller, more streamlined extensions for virtual switches, smaller
footprints, and fewer issues that need attention in the long term.
Easy development with existing API model. Extensions are coded by using either WFP or NDISthe
same programming model that has been available for more than a decade for creating networking
filters and drivers. For developers, this means they can begin working immediately without being
forced to learn a new development environment.
First-class citizens of the system. Hyper-V Extensible Switch extensions receive the same levels of
support and service as the switch itself. IT professionals benefit from this because functions and
activities, such as offloads and live migrationsand the related migration of configuration settings
simply work, with no additional effort.
Quality extensions with Windows logo certification. Extensions built in this framework are backed
by the Windows Hardware Certification program and associated tools to test and certify the end
products. This results in fewer bugs, better overall performance, and higher customer satisfaction.
Simpler diagnostics with unified tracing. With Unified Tracing support in the Hyper-V Extensible
Switch, ISVs and developers can spend less time diagnosing issues, which increases productivity while
cutting support costs. For IT professionals, it also leads to shorter down times.

Efficient Management with Microsoft System

Center 2012
The Hyper-V Extensible Switch helps organizations enhance their virtual networking scenarios. If they have
Microsoft System Center 2012 installed, they gain additional tools to help manage virtual switches and
extensions.
Configuration information that is applied to both physical and virtual switches is critical for providing
network connectivity and capabilities. In most IT environments, transmitting information between network
management systems and virtual machines involves a data exchangeoften in the form of
spreadsheetsbetween network administrators and server administrators. This can be a time-consuming
and error-prone approach, one that becomes even more complex with the introduction of additional
third-party extensions.
The Virtual Machine Manager component of System Center 2012 addresses this management issue to
help simplify and streamline the management of switches and their extensions. At the center of the new
capabilities is the Virtual Machine Manager logical switch. The logical switch provides a central location
Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

where a fabric administrator can define what extensions are used and the port profiles that are available
for those extensions. Virtual Machine Manager uses this feature to distribute extensions to hosts as
needed and to ensure that ports are configured uniformly, which helps to provide consistent virtual
machine behavior across the data center.
Organizations can benefit from this integration of Virtual Machine Manager through:
Automated importing of network settings from a virtual switch extension manager, which helps reduce
errors related to improper configurations.
Simplified management of network capabilities across all hosts in a single object.
The ability to create network capabilities as needed by the virtual machines, rather than providing all
virtual machines with equal access to those capabilities.

Providing an Efficient, Flexible Switch for Virtual Networks

The Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch offers enterprise organizations and data centers an
efficient and flexible virtual switch that provides an open platform for easy modifications and added
functionality. When used with Cisco virtual networking products, organizations can select from powerful
technology options to develop and deploy private clouds.

Cisco Virtual Networking

Solutions
The Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch delivers significant advances for enterprise
customers and data centers that are deploying private clouds. Now enterprises and data centers can
combine the virtualization features of the Hyper-V Extensible Switch with world-leading networking
products from Cisco. These include the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches and the Cisco UCS VM FEX.

Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches are distributed virtual switching platforms that deliver advanced
networking features, integrated virtual services, and a consistent operational model across virtual and
physical networking environments.
Like other modular Cisco switches, Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches have two major components:
The Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM) is a software line card that is embedded with Hyper-V when
deployed on a physical host. It delivers advanced networking capabilities to the virtual machines and
replaces Hyper-V Extensible Switch functionality. The VEM takes configuration information from the
Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM) and performs layer 2 switching and advanced networking functions,
including port channeling, QoS, and security and monitoring.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

 The VSM is a virtual machine that provides functionality similar to that of a supervisor module in a
physical modular switch. It controls multiple VEMs and provides a single point of management and
monitoring for the distributed virtual switch. All the switching and virtual machine networking
configuration is performed through VSM, and VSM automatically propagates the relevant data to the
participating VEMs.
In addition to these two components, Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches include Cisco vPath technology,
which extends multiple network services to Hyper-V environments.

Cisco UCS VM-FEX

The Cisco UCS VM-FEX simplifies virtual
machine networking by collapsing virtual
and physical networking into a single,
easily managed infrastructure. This
infrastructure takes advantage of the
Hyper-V Extensible Switch SR-IOV
technology to provide near bare-metal
I/O performance to the virtual machines.

Scenario: Shorter Down Times

While monitoring network statistics, one of Contosos IT
administrators notices that packets are being dropped
somewhere between the external network connection and a
virtual machine. In the past, the administrator would have
contacted a technician with debugging skills to find the
cause by examining the virtual switch network stack. This
process could have taken hoursor longer.
Today, however, the organization is running a virtual
environment on Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and Cisco
Nexus 1000V Series Switches for Hyper-V. Using the
troubleshooting tools available for Cisco NX-OS and the ETW
tool, the administrator views generated logs and quickly sees
which module and extension is dropping the packets. There
is no need to bring in extra resources, so the problem is
resolved quickly.

With VM-FEX, IT administrators can

provision, configure, manage, monitor,
and diagnose virtual machine network
traffic and bare-metal network traffic
within a unified infrastructure. The VMFEX software extends Cisco network fabric
technology to virtual machines. As a
result, each virtual machine has a dedicated interface to the parent switch, and all virtual machine traffic is
sent directly to the dedicated interface on the switch.
Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches and the VM-FEX technologies are among the most widely used virtual
networking technologies for enterprises and data centers, and they integrate nicely with Windows Server
2012 Hyper-V deployments to deliver an advanced solution for virtual networking.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

10

Reducing Complexity,
Increasing Benefits in
Virtual Networks
Cisco virtual networking solutions reduce the
complexities associated with virtual machineto-virtual machine networking, helping IT
professionals realize more of the benefits of
server virtualization technology. With Cisco
Nexus 1000V Series Switches and the VM-FEX
technology, organizations can preserve their
existing investments in network operation
models and management tools. Network
administrators can use Cisco NX-OS features
to manage network policies across both
physical and virtual environments, which
helps minimize the need for retraining. The
solutions offer high visibility into virtual
machine traffic, which streamlines
troubleshooting tasks. And virtualizationaware networking features simplify virtual
machine network policy management while
providing better security through the
extension of enterprise network policies to
the virtual network.

Scenario: Adding Virtual Switch

Functionality
A. Datum Corporation, a hosting company that serves
Fortune 1000 customers, has a network infrastructure that
consists primarily of Cisco Nexus switches. The company
uses Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and has a firewall
extension from Trey Research installed on every Hyper-V
Extensible Switch in the data center for customer
protection.
The company would like to unify management of both
their physical switches and virtual switches by deploying
the Cisco Nexus 1000V for Hyper-V extension into the
Hyper-V Extensible Switches. While the company expects
to eventually migrate to a Cisco ASA firewall, the first
phase is to deploy Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches for
Hyper-V onto each of the virtual switches with the Trey
Research firewall. This is easily accomplished because the
Hyper-V Extensible Switch framework allows multiple
extensions to coexist with each other. The administrator
can safely deploy Nexus 1000V Series Switches onto the
same switches, gaining unified switch functionality and
management while maintaining the same firewall
protection that is already in place.

Cisco virtual solutions operating in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V environments provide organizations
with advanced technologies for optimizing the functionality of their cloud deployments.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

11

Microsoft and Cisco: Providing

Advanced Choices for Virtual
Networking
Major organizations worldwide have standardized on Windows Server and Cisco networking products. In
response to customer requests, Microsoft and Cisco partnered in response to those customers seeking a
powerful, integrated solution for managing their virtual networking and cloud environments.
With the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches and
VM-FEX solutions, customers with Windows Server environments now have compelling options for
deploying and managing virtual networking systems.
Organizations have two options when using the Cisco products with Hyper-V. The following is an
overview of each scenario.

Extending Network Functions to Hyper-V with Nexus

1000V Series Switches
Organizations that want to extend comprehensive networking capabilities to their virtualized
environments can use the Nexus 1000V Series Switches to bring additional virtualization-aware
networking functions to the Hyper-V Extensible Switch. In this scenario, the Cisco VEM provides a software
line card that is embedded in Hyper-V. Each virtual machine on the host is then connected to the VEM
through a virtual Ethernet port. At the same time, the Cisco VSM helps to define virtual machinecentric
network policies in much the same way as a supervisor module works on a physical network switch.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

12

Figure 2: The Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches architecture used with Windows Server
2012 Hyper-V

This combination lets organizations take advantage of the Cisco virtual networking services that are part
1
of the Nexus 1000V Series. They include:
Cisco Virtual Security Gateway for providing detailed, zone-based policies for multitenant
environments.
Cisco ASA 1000V Cloud Firewall, which provides multi-tenant edge security, default gateway
functionality, and protection against network-based attacks.
Cisco Virtual Wide Area Application Services (vWAAS), which ensure application performance
acceleration to users connected to enterprise data centers and enterprise private clouds.
Cisco Network Analysis Module (NAM), which provides visibility to troubleshoot performance
problems in virtual environments.
Organizations needing a dedicated hardware appliance to host all of their virtual appliances Nexus 1000V
from Series Switches, such as vWAAS and NAM, can use the Cisco Nexus 1010 Virtual Services Appliance.
With the Nexus 1010 Virtual Services Appliance, network administrators do not need to rely on server
administrators to run networking appliances.

Cisco will provide more information about the availability of these services closer the general availability
of the Nexus 1000V.
1

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

13

Extending a Physical
Network to Hyper-V
Virtual Machines with the
Cisco VM-FEX
Organizations that want near bare-metal
performance for virtualized workloads running
with Hyper-V can turn to the Cisco UCS VM-FEX
solution. VM-FEX builds on the network fabric
extender technology developed by Cisco. Fabric
extender technology helps organizations achieve
the benefits of simplified management of
chassis-based modular switches and the
convenience of top-of-rack deployment. VM-FEX
brings these developments to virtual machines.
By using VM-FEX in Windows Server 2012
Hyper-V environments, organizations achieve
operational simplicity by being able to collapse
the physical and virtual networking layers into
one, which reduces the number of management
points that have to be monitored. It also delivers
the same consistent feature set and
infrastructure for both physical and virtual
environments. Using VM-FEX with Hyper-V also
provides improved performance through the SRIOV functionality discussed earlier in this paper.

Scenario: Migrating Switches and

Extensions
Kim is a developer at Litware Inc., an independent
software development company that provides a
range of niche enterprise software products for
Fortune 500 companies. Her primary role is to
provide security and network intelligence capabilities
for virtual networks. With third-party solutions, this
has always involved writing or rewriting the virtual
switches to include the new capabilities. Kim is an
expert at this task, but it is a tedious, time-consuming
process that involves a large amount of coding. It
also increases the possibility of bugs and security
holes.
With the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible
Switch, however, Kim has access to a plug-in
architecture that uses an open, public API. With the
open platform provided by Windows Server 2012,
Kim can focus her efforts on delivering just the
functionality she needs without rewriting the entire
switch. Her extensions will support live migrations
and network adapter hardware offloads without any
need for additional code. Because her extensions
have a smaller code footprint and went through
rigorous Microsoft extension certification tests, Kim is
confident that she is delivering high quality
extensions to her customers.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

14

Conclusion
Some of the biggest IT innovations today are being driven by the demand for new and enhanced
virtualization technologies to provide greater flexibility, scalability, and cost savings for enterprise
organizations and data centers. To realize the full potential of virtualization without suffering from
excessive cost and resource demands, IT professionals need solutions that can streamline the deployment
and management of virtualized networks.
The alliance between Microsoft and Cisco provides virtual networking solutions that fill this need. With the
capabilities provided by Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch, Cisco virtual networking
solutions, and the optional deployment of the Virtual Machine Manager component of Microsoft System
Center 2012, organizations can take full advantage of virtualization-aware networking features, simplify
their operations through this tight integration, and benefit from an operational model that streamlines IT
management for virtual and physical networks. This reduces complexity while helping reduce timeconsuming tasks for IT administrators. It also provides businesses with new possibilities for getting the
most out of their IT investments to make business operations more efficient.

For More Information

To learn more about Windows Server and the enhanced Hyper-V Extensible Switch, go to
www.microsoft.com/windowsserver
To learn more about the Cisco Nexus 1000V and related virtual networking products, go to
www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9902/index.html
For more information about the Hyper-V Extensible Switch API, go to
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh598161(v=VS.85).aspx
A sample forwarding extension is available for download at
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Hyper-V-Extensible-Virtual-e4b31fbb

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

15

List of charts, tables,

and figures
Figure 1: The Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch comes with three native
extensions that support essential virtual networking activities .................................................................... 7
Figure 2: The Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches architecture used with Windows Server
2012 Hyper-V ........................................................................................................................................................................13

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Extensible Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches

16