4 nics on ESXi question

[mla_]

Hello,

DL380 G7  4 embedded NICs.

Please suggest NICs config and IP assignment. Is DHCP could be considered for VMs?

Thx.

[vmroyale]

Hello.

Can you tell us more about the requirements of your environment?  How many hosts, and do you plan to use DRS, HA, FT, vMotion, iSCSI, NFS, etc.  These requirements will dictate the appropriate setup.

DHCP would be no different for VMs than it is for physical servers, so if you use it now it would be the same.  I personally prefer to not use DHCP for servers.

Good Luck!

[mla_]

Standalone HOST for 2 VMs (APP and SQL). No other requirements in the future.

[Walfordr]

mla! wrote:

Hello,

DL380 G7  4 embedded NICs.

Please suggest NICs config and IP assignment. Is DHCP could be considered for VMs?

Thx.

We are running DL380 G7 in our environment too. But we require 8 NICs.  Like vmroyale said we'll need to know your requirments to make any suggestions.  If you only have 1 host and have no fancy requirements then use 2 NICs on a management vSwitch and the other 2 on another vSwitch for your guest VMs.

DHCP could be used for your VMs.  Every environment is different.  Best practice is to use static IP address for servers, virtual or physical.  If you need to control IPs via DHCP add reservations to your scope.

[Walfordr]

mla! wrote:

Standalone HOST for 2 VMs (APP and SQL). No other requirements in the future.

local DAS or SAN storage?

[vmroyale]

I would agree with Walfordr here, if you have only direct attached storage, and go with 2 nics for the mgmt interface and 2 for the virtual machines.

[mla_]

ESXi on flash. 6 x 146Gb in RAID 10 + 1 spare

[mla_]

sure for VMs I will use static address...

Sorry I didn't touch ESX networking for more than 2 years and forgot a bit... worked with Hyper-V... But now we addidng more ESX...

I want to ask about host itself NICS.

You suggest 2 NICs for management. Do I need 2 static IPs for best practice in this situation? I planned one.

And other 2 phisical NICs should they be static. As I mentioned VMs will use STATIC only.

[vmroyale · Accepted solution]

You suggest 2 NICs for management. Do I need 2 static IPs for best practice in this situation? I planned one.

No, just one IP address.  You can also place the second NIC in standby, so that it will only be active if the primary fails.

And other 2 phisical NICs should they be static. As I mentioned VMs will use STATIC only.

I would split the VM Network off of vSwitch0 and create a new vSwitch just for the VM Network.  Assign these two NICs to it and that is it.  There will be no IP addresses for the vSwitch for the VM Network.  Just give the IPs to your VMs.

[mla_]

Good refresh!

Thanks.

PS

I may ask another question... :smileylaugh:

will start config in couple of hours

[Walfordr]

You only assign IP addresses to management network and vmk (kernel) port groups (used for iSCSI, NFS, vMotion, etc) in the VMware world.  The second vSwitch that we are suggesting will only have a VM Network portgroup with your 2 NICs as uplinks - no IPs.  IPs are assinged at the guest OS level for that portgroup.

vmroyale covered everything you need...

[znet98]

Better to use static IPs.

Are your management with VMs in same subnet?

if so, 3 ports for teaming, and 4th set as standby;

if not, management uses 2 ports, one of those is standby, app and SQL use anther 2;

if you think app and SQL have a lot traffic, then use 1 for management, 2 for APP and SQL as teaming, another 1 is standby for APP and SQL.

We have run ESXi env been long time, always building systems with addon quad cards for different subnet.

[mla_]

znet98 wrote:

Better to use static IPs.

Are your management with VMs in same subnet?

if so, 3 ports for teaming, and 4th set as standby;

Yes, one subnet.

Probably VMWare teaming not HP. Will connect soon to the host and should find a teaming option.

>Better to use static IPs.

For VMs sure. If it will be teaming I need just one IP. Correct?

Using teaming will provide redundancy and load distribution. Correct?

There should not be a heavy traffic to SQL.

THANKS for advice.

[mla_]

Walfordr,

thanks for clear explanation.

I don't want to create opinion's battle... :smileylaugh:

But now when I have a suggestion of znet98 about 3 NICs teaming I have no choise but to ask a primitive question what is better.

The host is installed and I accessed Networking. Don't see any teaming option ....

There will no be heavy traffic.

[vmroyale]

Either approach (and other combinations) will work, but what I had suggested earlier was based off of the best practice of keeping your management network isolated from your virtual machine network.  2 NICs for management and 2 for the 2 virtual machines would allow you to achieve best practice in regard to the isolation and still provide redundancy for each vSwitch, while still keeping the remainder of the setup simple from a networking perspective.

[mla_]

Thanks a lot.

I will play now with additional switch creation. And will go 2x2 approach. But it is good to know both.

Btw I found ESX teaming and standby options.

One more question that I want to clarify:

I guess it is possible to assign to VM dedicate phisical NIC by creating a new switch that is connected to a phisical NIC and connecting only this machine to vSwitch.

Thanks

[vmroyale]

Yes, you could do that.  Although with two VMs and a pair of GbE connections it might be overkill.   I say keep it simple!

[mla_]

Mission accomplished ( I guess ). See attach... I enabled management traffic only on management switch.

Thanks to all for help!

[znet98]

Glad you got it.

Simple is better.

Mostl teaming is for network speed increase, and standby for the redundancy