Benefit using two VMkernel ports for vMotion?

[Titans99]

Hi, on ESXi 5.1 is there is a performance benefit by using two VMkernel ports with two pNIC's (active/standby for each) for vMotion... versus just using a single vMotion VMkernel with the two pNIC's both active?  See attached for visual.  Thanks!

[vmroyale]

Yes there is a performance benefit by using two VMkernel ports with two pNIC's (active/standby for each) for vMotion. Check out the comments at

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2011/09/17/multiple-nic-vmotion-in-vsphere-5/ for more information on this.

[KKrtz]

Hello.

I've also configured this and the vMotion worked much more faster!

But today I've switched back to the "old" configuration because we had huge problems. During vMotion we had an network timeout in the backbone and all pNics lost connectivity to network. Now I am waiting for feedback from VMware

[jrmunday]

Yes, definitely ... I have this configured on all 30 of my production hosts, and it actually doubles the performance - definitely worth doing, I can't recommend this highly enough.

[Titans99]

Sweet, thanks for the responses.  I am building a new 4 node cluster and think I will roll with something like this (attached) for networking across two physical switches, unless someone slaps my hand.

[a_p_]

Looks ok for me, except that I would use all 3 other uplinks as standby for the Management network.

André