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
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
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
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
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.