Software-defined network orchestration in a virtualized computer system

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions to be executed in a computing device to cause the computing device to carry out a method of orchestrating a software-defined (SD) network layer of a virtualized computing system, the virtualized computing system including a host cluster, a virtualization management server, and a network management server each connected to a physical network, the network management server being deployed in a separate physical or virtual server from the virtualization management server, the host cluster having hosts and a virtualization layer executing on hardware platforms of the hosts, the method comprising:

• receiving, at the virtualization management server, a declarative specification describing a proposed state of an SD network for the host cluster;
• deploying, by a network management service executing in the virtualization management server, virtualized infrastructure components in the host cluster needed to implement the SD network described in the declarative specification, the virtualized infrastructure including a resource pool, at least one virtual machine (VM) deployed in the resource pool, and a distributed switch deployed in the virtualization layer;
• and
• deploying, by the network management service in cooperation with the network management server, logical network services of the SD network on the virtualized infrastructure components, the logical network services including a logical switch deployed on the distributed switch and edge services deployed in the at least one VM.

A virtualized computing system, comprising:

• a host cluster, a virtualization management server, and a network management server each connected to a physical network, the network management server being deployed in a separate physical or virtual server from the virtualization management server;
• the host cluster including hosts and a virtualization layer executing on hardware platforms of the hosts;
• the network management server configured to manage an SD network for the host cluster;
• and
• the virtualization management server configured to:
• receive a declarative specification describing a proposed state of an SD network for the host cluster;
• deploying, by a network management service executing in the virtualization management server, virtualized infrastructure components in the host cluster needed to implement the SD network described in the declarative specification, the virtualized infrastructure including a resource pool, at least one virtual machine (VM) deployed in the resource pool, and a distributed switch deployed in the virtualization layer;
• and
• deploying, by the network management service in cooperation with the network management server, logical network services of the SD network on the virtualized infrastructure components, the logical network services including a logical switch deployed on the distributed switch and edge services deployed in the at least one VM.