VMware Cloud Community
hack3rcon
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Which NIC Teaming is good for File Server?

Hello Expert.

What Kind of "Load Balancing" option is good for File server?

Thank you.

Reply
0 Kudos
17 Replies
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

It depends on the traffic. In most cases I saw so far, you don't really need to care about special configurations when running on a Gigabit network. Leave the settings at their default "Route based on the originating port ID" which assigns the VMs to the vmnics in a Round-Robin manner. This allows to attach the vmnics to different physical switches (for redundancy purposes) with default port configurations (e.g. tagged/untagged).

André

Reply
0 Kudos
TomHowarth
Leadership
Leadership

Not wanting to be pedantic, but what exactly do you mean by File Server?

if you mean a guest file server running on a ESX host then don't bother with NIC Teaming, a single NIC will be enough as resliance is at the host.

if you are talking about the Host the see Andre's answer

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
Reply
0 Kudos
hack3rcon
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have a Windows File server that many users connected to it and Copy and move files.

What option is good for me?

Reply
0 Kudos
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

What are the I/O and bandwidth requirements? Do you see high network usage for the file server?

André

Reply
0 Kudos
TomHowarth
Leadership
Leadership

As Andre says "What are the I/O and bandwidth requirements? Do you see high network usage for the file server?" 

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
Reply
0 Kudos
HawkieMan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Why do i get the feeling this is not really a vmware question?

It depends on if the fileserver is external from the VM enviroment, or internal. If its internal then you should choose loadbalancing algorithm based on your switches capabilities.

If you have a virtualized fileserver accessed from clients from outside the vmware enviroment, then I would consider using a loadbalancer in front that could spread traffic over NICs and let the user session get terminated on the LBs.

Reply
0 Kudos
hack3rcon
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

As I said, It is a File server that many users copy and move files on it, In your opinion it must be 10/100!!!!! I need high speed.

Reply
0 Kudos
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Without knowing the requirements one cannot recommend any settings. From my experience with environments ranging from less than 100 users up to a few thousand users, in most cases a 1GBit/s uplink was more than sufficient, and it was actually the backup (in case of agent based backups) which required the most bandwidth.

André

Reply
0 Kudos
HawkieMan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Can you please answer if it is a Virtual file server or not?

Then it Depends on the uplinks you have available from Your ESX server.

In general i fileserver should always have loads of bandwith, but you need to explain what exactly Your question has to do With virtualization, otherwise we are stuck With a general question if file servers need bandwith

Reply
0 Kudos
hack3rcon
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yes, It is a Virtual Windows server that installed on Vmware.

Reply
0 Kudos
cykVM
Expert
Expert

Seriously if you don't give us at least a basic idea of your environment we won't be able to help you.

So we need to know for example:

  1. What physical hardware you are running (server type/model, RAM, NIC type/model, storage controller)?
  2. What ESXi version are you running?
  3. How many VMs?
  4. Which Windows version is used for the fileserver?
  5. Where do you want to activate NIC teaming: on the physical NIC(s) or inside the Windows fileserver VM?
  6. How many users are in you network and accessing the fileserver?
  7. Are the users experiencing speed problems copying/accessing files?
  8. What speed is your physical network (switch) on 1 GBit, 10 GBit ...?

cykVM

Reply
0 Kudos
HawkieMan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Brand and model of Switch/routing equipment is also valuable, as they limit the capabilities you can take advantage of.

Reply
0 Kudos
hack3rcon
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

1- I use "Asus RS520-E6" with 100GB memory.

2- I use ESXi 5.5

3- Three Vms

4- Windows server 2008 R2

5- on the physical NIC(s) via vSphere.

6- yes.

7- 10GB

Reply
0 Kudos
cykVM
Expert
Expert

The Asus RS520-E6 has dual Intel 82574L 1 GBit ports so if you already have a 10 GBit switch you may even get a 10GBit NIC for the host to archieve better access speeds.

Reply
0 Kudos
hack3rcon
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

My problem is that with 1Gbit I must have speed about 100MB but I just have 1MB or 2MB Smiley Sad

Reply
0 Kudos
cykVM
Expert
Expert

Is there a lot of network traffic on the other 2 VMs on that host?

Did you check your physical switch if the port the host is connected to shows the right speed and also in network configuration on the host the right speed is shown?

Maybe even a driver update for Intel NICs helps, see for example: VMware Compatibility Guide: I/O Device Search

Looks more like the bottleneck is in your physical network and teaming won't help much.

Reply
0 Kudos
cykVM
Expert
Expert

Might be even an issue with the storage controller in use. From the specs of that Asus server  http://www.asus.com/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/RS520E6ERS8/specifications/

the deafult RAID controllers are "Asus Pike 2008/2108 ..." ones. Those do not seem to have any support for VMware and only the 2108 has a BBU option. So you might experience just slowish access on the disk volume(s).

Reply
0 Kudos