VMware NSX Logical Switch and VXLAN

The VMware NSX logical switch is a layer 2 broadcast domain that is implemented using VXLAN (Virtual eXtensible LAN) overlay network. VXLAN is standardized in IETF RFC 7348 (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7348). VXLAN adds 50 bytes on top of the original Ethernet frame (with a standard of 1,500 bytes) and encapsulates the source Ethernet frame in a new UDP packet. The 50 bytes consist of:

  • 8 bytes VXLAN header added on top of the original inner Ethernet frame
  • 8 bytes outer UDP header
  • 20 bytes outer IP header
  • 14 bytes outer Ethernet header

The following figure shows the VXLAN packet format:

The minimum MTU ...

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