Dedicated NIC to VM

[AmeenMunaff]

Hi Guys,

One of our user need to configure SQL Mirroring from a VM to a remote location.

VM is located in Location A with vSphere 5.1 running in vBlock (VCE)
rightnow we are using nexus 1000v for ESXi. and what are the benefits and disadvantages of having dedicated NIC card to a VM. also pl let know how to do it

[zXi_Gamer]

benefits and disadvantages of having dedicated NIC card to a VM.

By dedicated NIC, if you are referring to PCI-e Passthrough of a Nic Card to the VM, then you will be having a lot benefits like:

- Usage of full nic specific features to the VM

- Takes out additional overhead of packets translation from vSwitches

Lots more.

disadvantages, well, you need to find the right card which is passthrough supported provided your CPU supports it

[tomtom901]

You can configure DirectPath I/O to map a PCI device (in this case to a nic) which provides less latency and overhead, but you lose features like vMotion and FT, unless you are running UCS, which does some magic so that that works. You can also configure a port group or vSwitch to leverage a vmnic and connect only the VM to that port group.

[AmeenMunaff]

Thanks dude...Can I add a vnic in ucs and then create a vswitch for that vm....also if I do so vmotion wont work unless n until I create vswitch in other hosts also right?We r using nexus 1000v in the env, what do u think isnthe best thng to do.

[abhilashhb]

No Ameen you will have to add a nic to the service profile. Then when you go to advanced settings in configuration tab of that host in vsphere client you will find the nic showing up there. You will have to then configure it as a passthrough device. After which you can add the nic to vm as a pci device

[tomtom901]

However, I would advice against using DirectPath I/O unless the application / VM that will handle this PCI device is extremely overhead and latency sensitive. Otherwise, take the extra bit (really, really low) overhead for granted and be able to leverage the full ESXi features.

[AmeenMunaff]

I dnt want to do passthrough, the vm needs dedicated nic and I thnk we can give it thru vswitch with one nic especially fr tat vm. Isnt this the best thing? Or if u guys can give other suggestions I wud b happy to reconsider it

[tomtom901]

If it's the best thing depends on your environment, could you share a screenshot of configuration -> networking? It is definitely an option.

[AmeenMunaff]

I cant provide the snapshot rightnow. But we have two uplinks from each esx and they are working thru nexus 1000v switch.  We dont have any standard switch at present.