Loadbalancing the vmkernel (storage) connections

[NetEngIT]

Hi Guys,

Please forgive me If I am wrong, but I am under the impression that;

If I create two uplinks on a virtual switch to two independant switches Active/Active (2 x 1Gb) I have to choose, MAC Based or port ID LB. (this is obviously becuase they cant be ether channeled)

Also that the LB works, in that each Vnic for a VM is tied to one of the uplinks for the duration, hence the LB is between VM's not a full use of 2GB per VM)

Hence my question is this, how does this work for vmkernel, I only ask as I am going to create a VMkernel port (Datastore Access) using 2 x 1GB connections and I was wondering if although set to Active/Active will it only use 1 of the links???

Thanks in Advance

Scott

[ThompsG]

Hi Scott,

It would be my recommendation that you read this in ordert to answer your question: http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/09/a-multivendor-post-on-using-iscsi-with-vmware-vs...

If you follow the above link ultimately you will end up with both nics being active/active however this is done by having two VMkernel portgroups and multipathing to the iSCSI volume across these.

Trust this helps,

Glen