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10 Replies Last post: Nov 4, 2009 11:01 AM by ToddStriegel  

Tagged Service Console posted: Oct 6, 2009 12:01 PM

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HammondC
4 posts since
Oct 6, 2009

I reciently moved my Service console to be a tagged in with the rest of my Virtual Machine networks. The attached picture says it all. Is this an acceptable configuration? It was dissapointed to note that the "currently has no management network redundancy" message did not go away. Previously the Service console was setup similar to the VMkernel with only 1 physical adaptor. I moved it to the current config (attached). Thanks.
Attachments:
Tags: vlan, tagging, service_console, networking

Re: Tagged Service Console

1. Oct 6, 2009 4:19 PM in response to: HammondC
Click to view jbogardus's profile Expert
jbogardus
225 posts since
Jan 12, 2007
If you right click your hosts and select "Reconfigure for HA" the warning message should go away now that there is network redundancy for the service console

Re: Tagged Service Console

2. Oct 7, 2009 8:36 AM in response to: jbogardus
Click to view HammondC's profile Novice
HammondC
4 posts since
Oct 6, 2009
Yes, that did clear that message however my main question is, is this an acceptable configuration using tagging and mixing Service console with VM networks? Which may in tern lead to doing the same with the VMkernel. Thanks.

Re: Tagged Service Console

3. Oct 7, 2009 9:16 AM in response to: HammondC
Click to view naveenvm's profile Enthusiast
naveenvm
52 posts since
Sep 3, 2008

Thats not the recommended way. It is advised to keep SC and VM networks on separate vSwitches as per best practices.

Whats more important to you ?

Are you using iScsi storage on this ESX? Or you are having heavy network load for VMs i.e.need to have two nics for VMnetwork?


NUTZ
VCP 3.5
(Preparing for VCP 4)

Re: Tagged Service Console

4. Oct 7, 2009 11:16 AM in response to: naveenvm
Click to view shimmyt's profile Novice
shimmyt
6 posts since
Nov 27, 2006
No heavy load on network usage. The network usage is actually fairly low. That's dual nics is more for redundancy. We are running Fibre Channell storage so no iSCSI involved. The question really comes from wanting to save our switch guy from killing us for asking for redundant ports for this network. Oh and I work with the OP :)

Re: Tagged Service Console

5. Oct 8, 2009 8:07 AM in response to: shimmyt
Click to view naveenvm's profile Enthusiast
naveenvm
52 posts since
Sep 3, 2008

Well, in that case, I guess that is the only solution with 3 nics. You can keep SC and VMs on same vSwitch, but do remember, keep the two nics in active/ standby fashion for ur SC and VM.

Nic active for SC should be passive to VMs and vice-versa.


NUTZ
VCP 3.5
(Preparing for VCP 4)

Re: Tagged Service Console

6. Oct 8, 2009 8:25 AM in response to: naveenvm
Click to view shimmyt's profile Novice
shimmyt
6 posts since
Nov 27, 2006
The surprising thing is we don’t have issues with the number of ports available on the hosts. Just the number of ports on the switch.

Re: Tagged Service Console

7. Oct 8, 2009 8:51 AM in response to: naveenvm
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HammondC
4 posts since
Oct 6, 2009
The vSwitch is set to active/active. Why would we set it to active/passive for the service console only?

Re: Tagged Service Console

8. Oct 8, 2009 9:17 AM in response to: HammondC
Click to view naveenvm's profile Enthusiast
naveenvm
52 posts since
Sep 3, 2008

With only 3 ports available you need to decide either of two - load balancing or failover.

For, SC - failover holds more importance and as u said VMs aren't too much of load on network. So with active / passive setting you can achieve failover for both of these i.e if somehow nic1 fails SC will automatically be shifted to nic2 and if nic2 fails the VMs will automatically be shifted to nic1. That's why......

NUTZ
VCP 3.5
(Preparing for VCP 4)

Re: Tagged Service Console

9. Nov 3, 2009 7:25 AM in response to: HammondC
Click to view HammondC's profile Novice
HammondC
4 posts since
Oct 6, 2009
We ended up making two vswitches each with two physical adapters. On each vswitch is a service console and Vmkernel.

Re: Tagged Service Console

10. Nov 4, 2009 11:01 AM in response to: naveenvm
Click to view ToddStriegel's profile Novice
ToddStriegel
14 posts since
Apr 18, 2008
What about in cases of FCoE? We have each host with two CNAs. The two are in a vSwitch and have multiple port-groups assigned to that vSwitch (Service Console, VMK, VM Networks). In the case where you now only have two connections, what would be the prefered configuration?

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