ESXi Networking

[rovercm]

We have 2 esxi hosts. Each esxi host has 4 embedded (0-3) in network ports and 1 pcie card with 4 ports (4-7).
All in all, each esxi host has 8 ports. Both ESXI servers have the same configuration in terms of networking

we have only 2 physical switches A & B so we distributed it this way
2 embedded ports  - Switch A (ports 0,1)
2 embedded ports  - Switch B (ports 2,3)
2 pcie card based ports - Switch A (Ports 4,5)
2 pcie card based ports - Switch B (ports 6,7)

We have 2 Virtual Switches
VSwitch 0 - with ports 0,1,4,5
has the following:
- vswitch (nic teaming enabled)
- vm network
- management network (nic teaming enabled)

Vswitch 1 - with ports 2,3,6,7
has the following:
- vswitch (nic teaming enabled)
- vmnetwork

1. VM network's nic teaming is not enabled, can i enable it? what's the difference between vswitch and vm network?
2. when we configured the HA, it was not successful. we receive an error
"cannot complete the configuration of the HA Agent on the host.
Host 1 could not reach isolation address: < isolation address unspecified>"
3. Do i need to have another management network on my Vswitch 1?
4. What is the best practice with this multiple nics and to be able to achieve HA configuration?
5. Previosly, HA was successfully implemented, but thats because there's only 1 virtual switch on each esx server (vswitch 0).
Running Vsphere 4 with 2 x esxi hosts having shared SAN.

[jamesbowling]

1.  The vSwitch is the virtual switch hardware and not directly related to the VM Network.  The VM Network is a portgroup on the vSwitch.  Personally, and I think best practice directs us to, segregate VM traffic from Management Network traffic.  With this in mind I would remove the VM Network from the first vSwitch and bring it down to only 2 pNICs.

2.  See KB:  http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1028295

3.  You are not required to but it couldn't hurt.  If you have multiple pNICs tied to the vSwitch that your management network is on then it is really just a matter of preference.  In my case, I normally don't create a second one.

4.  Best practice is normally making sure that you have redundancy for your Management network, vMotion network, and VM Network while segregating them as much as possible without putting any in a situation where they are left without a NIC.

[jamesbowling]

Also, check out Duncan's blog:  http://www.yellow-bricks.com/vmware-high-availability-deepdiv/

[rovercm]

THanks James. I have few more questions and thanks for entertaining a newbie

What do you mean with "while segregating them as much as possible"

In each ESX server, I have at least 10 VMs running and spread them across two vswitch.

I understand that its better to remove the management network from the Vswitch 0 - that is i will be creating vswitch 3 which should contain only the management network and having 2 Physical Nics assigned to it.

Currently----------------------

We have 2 Virtual Switches
VSwitch 0 - with ports 0,1,4,5
has the following:
- vswitch (nic teaming enabled)
- vm network
- management network (nic teaming enabled)

Vswitch 1 - with ports 2,3,6,7
has the following:
- vswitch (nic teaming enabled)
- vmnetwork

Target -------------------

vswitch 0 - with ports 0,1,4

-vswitch

-vmnetwork

vswitch 1 - with ports 2,3,6

-vswitch

-vmnetwork

vswitch 2 - with ports 5,7

- management network

Both vswitch0 and 1 will have 5 vms each. while vswitch 2 will have management network only.

I dont have vmotion license so the vmotion network is not being used.

Also, will having mutiple ports add the throughput aside from redundancy?

Is it better to have 5 Vms in 2 switches or to have 1 switch with 1 Vm assign to it? Someone advised me that to ensure faster speed, its better to have 1 NIC per 1 VM -- dedicated NIC per VM, but that will be a sure unredundant configuration.

One thought I have is that if the Vswitch has few VMs assigned, the better the speed (eg. 1 VM per 1 vswitch with 2 physical nics). Meaning, lesser VMs usign the switches.

[arturka]

Hi

Take have a look at this thread, it is quite well explained what does it mean separation and how network should be configured to have it proper failover, redundancy and separation.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1807359#1807359

• Basically you should have 2 vmnic per vSwitch connected to different pSwitch - to have hardware redundancy
• Separate ESX management traffic (vMotion, vmk or Service console) from VM, storage, Fault Tolerance traffic

Cheers
Artur

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