ESXi 5 network configuration guide (Vmnetwork, management & vMotion) with 2 NIC

[rmustafa]

Hi,

I have 4 NIC in 7 blade server (ESXI 5), would like to dedecate 2 NIC for (Vmnetwork, management & vMotion) & 2 NIC for (iSCSI traffic) with equallogic SAN.

I've equallogic guide to configure ESXI with it , but how to configure (Vmnetwork, management & vMotion) with 2 NIC, my priority is excellent speed for my virtual machine then anything else.

[TomHowarth]

One vDS for iSCSI and the second switch a standard switch configured with two nics, but have each one as failover for the other

[rmustafa]

I will be having vsphere 5 standard license, so I can't go for vDSwitch , have to go with standard switch.

Would like to clear my vie on VDS, why we need VDS for simple configuration ???

I've 4 NIC on each blade, 2 NIC will be for my (Vmnetwork, management & vMotion)  & NIC for my iSCSI , please clear.

I just wiuld like to know I wanted to have a very good bandwith for my VMs so that I wanted to use 2 NIC as active/active for my Vmnetwork.

[athlon_crazy · Accepted solution]

Then just go for legacy switch.

The configuration is much depend on the existing network infra such as, trunk, physical switch for redundant & load balance, 100 or 1GbE network, no. of VMs and etc. If this is a new setup, I would suggest you trunk the 2x available vmnics (vm network) for load balance and better performance.

[rickardnobel]

Do you have one or more physical switches connected to your ESXi hosts? This will affect which NIC teamin policy to select. In your case I think it would be best to leave the default ("port id") and have the management, vMotion and virtual machines on the same vSwitch with two active vmnics.