Concepts
L2 Segments service allows you to unite servers within a location group in a broadcast domain and enhance networks by connecting isolated groups of devices. This provides better control, customization, and optimal performance.
By choosing Servers.com as a hosting provider for your applications, you retain control over the definition of your network environment. Whether it's the usage of IP address spaces, creation of subnets, or floating IP addresses, you can have it.
Using VXLAN technology, we have built a service called L2 Segments, also known as the broadcast domain.
Features
- Available in both public and private networks
- All additional networks associated with the dedicated server come under the management of the L2 Segment
- The Direct Connect (DC) service can be added in multiple L2 Segments.
- Allows the use of custom IP addressing
- ACL rules do not have an impact on the L2 Segment
The L2 Segment service is delivered through our L3 Fabric network which employs VXLAN technology. There's no need to relocate servers between switches, all whilst retaining the advantages of the L3 Fabric network including reliability, scalability, and increased network availability.
Use cases
Here are some of the main use cases for L2 Segments:
Network segmentation
The basic use case is the network segmentation, or subnetting. A single client can allocate multiple L2 Segments and assign servers with different roles to different segments. Because of this, servers with different roles will be in different networks. For example, the servers hosting a public website can be isolated from the servers running a CRM application. This increases the security within the network.
Floating IP addresses
A more complex use case involves floating IP addresses. This use case is typical amongst services demanding high availability. Floating IP address can be transferred between multiple servers allowing for a failover or upgrade of production software. For a floating IP address to be transferred between physical servers, data link layer connectivity is required between those servers.
Private cloud is another instance requiring floating IP addresses. Floating IP addresses allow for the migration of a virtual server between physical servers in a virtualized environment. When a Virtual Machine (VM) is moved to a new bare metal server, the new server announces the takeover of an IP address of the moved VM, so that the VM can remain reachable by its IP address regardless of physical location.
Custom IP addressing
The next use case is to fulfil the specific needs of the proprietary or legacy software systems. Custom IP addressing provides the flexibility to use almost any IP address space within L2 Segments. This service allows the clients to deploy their own DHCP and PXE servers.
Multicast
A large amount of software relies on Ethernet multicast to reduce CPU and bandwidth consumption in one-to-many communications. Use cases include audio, video, and quote broadcasting. Multiplayer video game servers are another example; they can use L2 broadcast segments for multicast communications.