Syslog and DNS on VM--> UDP traffic flood concerns?

[martinrb]

We are considering converting several physical edge services boxes running DNS and Syslog, from physical to virtual machines. Someone raised a concern regarding the expected volume of small network packets, likely around 1500 (mostly UDP) packets per second. We're on a gig network.

I've had a number of vendors steer us away from virtuals in the past due to a high volume of network chatter. HP SIM, for example,monitors thousands of servers via SNMP and the vendor will not certify on VM due to potential network congestion.

My questions are:

A) Is there reason to be concerned with provisioning Syslog/DNS on a virtual, knowing that I'll get ~1500 packets/second?

B) Is there a 'rule of thumb' or guideline for "acceptable" volume of small network packets on a VM?

B) Are there any other "gotchas" running Syslog or DNS on a 3.5x VM that anyone is aware of?

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

[Rodos]

To answer your questions from my experience

A) No

B) No

C) No. However if your syslog is getting a lot of UDP packets you may want to disable that VM from VMotion, as you may loose a few packets as the networking switches. If its tcp that there will not be loss.

Should be easy for you to setup some load tests for your environment, which is the only way you are going to be sure.

Considering awarding points if this is of use

[azn2kew]

I wouldn't see any problems virtualizing the Syslogs and DNS servers even VMware has paper regarding DNS server under ESX.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems LLC.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant