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AndyKB
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Network Bandwidth

Hi all, I am running ESXi 4.1 with a FreeNAS server for storage. I have seperate vswitch for my storage network and my NAS has 3 bonded NICs for high  speed access.

Is there a way of bonding NICs in ESXi 4.1 so I can get better throughput than just 1Gb NIC?

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ealaqqad
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Hi AndyKB,

I am not sure how segregated is your network & what exactly you are trying to acheive, though maybe VLANs & network teaming are two things you want to investigate. As you can have multiple adapters teamed together in ESX that will definetly give you a better redundancy and throughput.

Please reward points if this help.

Regards,

Eiad Al-Aqqad

Technology Consultant @ VMware

b: http://www.VirtualizationTeam.com

b: http://www.TSMGuru.com

Regards, Eiad Al-Aqqad Technology Consultant @ VMware b: http://www.VirtualizationTeam.com b: http://www.TSMGuru.com

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ealaqqad
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Hi AndyKB,

I am not sure how segregated is your network & what exactly you are trying to acheive, though maybe VLANs & network teaming are two things you want to investigate. As you can have multiple adapters teamed together in ESX that will definetly give you a better redundancy and throughput.

Please reward points if this help.

Regards,

Eiad Al-Aqqad

Technology Consultant @ VMware

b: http://www.VirtualizationTeam.com

b: http://www.TSMGuru.com

Regards, Eiad Al-Aqqad Technology Consultant @ VMware b: http://www.VirtualizationTeam.com b: http://www.TSMGuru.com
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chriswahl
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If you had some additional physical NICs on the server, you could team them together into your storage vSwitch1. However, that only increases the aggregate throughput value - no single transfer will utilize all of the NICs simultaneously.

It is a good idea to use multiple NICs for your storage simply from a failure standpoint. If your vmnic1 failed all of your storage will be inaccessible.

VCDX #104 (DCV, NV) ஃ WahlNetwork.com ஃ @ChrisWahl ஃ Author, Networking for VMware Administrators
AndyKB
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Okay its been a while as I had NIC issues that almost cost my sanity, thats now sorted and I have got what I wanted setup and running, I have teamed/trunked 4 nic ports on my freenas box and teamed 2 nic ports on the ESXi box, all is good again :smileygrin:

Also now mastered vlans now the bloody nics are stable Smiley Happy

Oh when its good its good, but the bad days hurt :smileysilly:

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