ESXi network redundancy

[RomanB1005]

Hello All

I would like to ask some questions regarding my network design.

I  use small blade solution from DELL. (Dell VRTX).

Currently we have two blade servers M620 in HA cluster installed with ESXi 5.5 with Essential plus licence.

I did decision to make my network setup more redundant.

Every blade has two-port 10gb LOM connected to internal switch (I/O module inside Blade chassis) and additionaly connected two-port PCI Network cards.

In attachement you can find my network design layout.

LAYOUT EXPLANATION

*********************************

NIC1,NIC2 = LOM

NIC3,NIC4 = PCI CARD

NIC1+NIC3 = Kernel Ports (NIC 1 - Standby adapter)

NIC2*NIC4 = Standart ports (NIC2 - Standby adapter)

VSWITCH1 = Used for V-MOTION , MANAGEMENT NETWORK , (same network as our LAN network , VLAN7)

VSWITCH2 = MPLS Network for branch offices with 3 VLans

RED CONNECTION = untaged vlan 7 traffic

BLUE CONNECTION = Trunk (VLAN1,2,3)

GREEN CONNECTION = Trunk (VLAN 1,2,3,7)

BB SWITCH is two node stucked switch.

I would like to ask if my design is correct.

Thanks in Advance

[schepp · Accepted solution]

Hi Roman,

First, I would split management and vMotion traffic into seperate VLANs. I've seen some vMotion process going wild, I like to keep that seperated 😉

So you could use NIC1 for management, with NIC3 on standby for that and use NIC3 for vMotion with NIC1 on standby.

Second I would recommend to use NIC2 and NIC4 in active/active mode, so you actually use the second card for load balancing the VM network traffic and not wasting it in standby mode.

Cheers

Tim

[RomanB1005]

Thank you for your answer.

I would like to ask last thing. Can I use load balancing trough the two separate switches .. ?

Thanks in Advance

Roman

[schepp]

Hi,

yes. In the default setting the ESXi will distribute the VMs onto both NICs without any configuration need on the switches.

It's just a simple "load balancing".

The first VM started will use nic1, the second VM use nic2, the third nic1, etc.