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2 Replies Last post: Nov 7, 2009 2:28 PM by athlon_crazy  

Networking Setup with new cluster posted: Nov 6, 2009 7:30 AM

Click to view Mattries's profile Lurker
Mattries
1 posts since
Nov 6, 2009

I am setting up a new VMWare vSphere 4.0 (Advanced) cluster with 3 hosts and a Dell MD3000i SAN. Each host has 8 NICs and we have 2 switches for a fault tolerant cluster. I am currently using (on each host):

2 NICS for VMotion (one NIC to each switch)
2 NICS for iSCS (one NIC to each switch)
1 NIC for the Service Console

I am getting warnings from vCenter saying that my Management Console is not fault tolerant. My plan is to dedicate another NIC on each server to the same vSwitch as my Service Console to have that fault tolerant, but what should I use the other 2 NICs on each server for? We only have one server that is Fault Tolerant, so I am hesitant to dedicate 2 NICs soley to FT Logging.

Any help? Thanks in advance!!

Re: Networking Setup with new cluster

1. Nov 6, 2009 10:10 AM in response to: Mattries
Click to view AndreTheGiant's profile Guru
AndreTheGiant
5,897 posts since
Aug 28, 2008
I suggest to put the service console on the same vSwitch of VMotion, to have two NIC for both interface.
Also consider to have a FT interface, in this case you can use 3 NIC on a vSwitch with COS, VMotion and FT interfaces.

For iSCSI remember to use 2 different vSwitch and use VLAN to have isolated network (follow the MD3000i cabling and network planning).

Andre

Re: Networking Setup with new cluster

2. Nov 7, 2009 2:28 PM in response to: Mattries
Click to view athlon_crazy's profile Expert
athlon_crazy
524 posts since
Oct 28, 2007
I'll choose 3x vSwitch atleast with the number of pNICs available.

Since only one VM will have FT enable, vMotion can share the same vSwitch with FT but not for the COS. You also may need to consider unencrypt Memory Bitmap transfer during vMotion process might compromise with your security policy and contribute to your network bottleneck . Hence, separate COS with 2x NIC is good to ensure management availability & redundancy all the time. The last vSwitch, leave it as is for your iscsi connection.

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