Network Configuration Question

[esnmb]

I know it was best practice to have the management console have it's own NIC as well as the vmotion switch have it's own NIC, and then the VM's have their own set of NICs. Is this still valid?

I am installing ESXi 4 fresh over my ESX 3.5 U5 setup. My servers are IBM Blades, LS42's, with only 4 NICs. I am very tempted to just make a big virtual switch with all 4 NICs in it. I have Enterprise Plus licensing with Nexus so I don't think this will really be an issue.

Thoughts?

[athlon_crazy]

Yes it's still valid but depend on the situation. I always give priority and consideration when designing my environment to these 3 items :

Security

Performance

Redundancy

If you have no limitation with the uplink or nic, you should take all three into account & security should be given the first priority by physically separating all management nics from VMs network. However, if you dont have enough nic, it's up to you to decide which one come first and best for your environment. Perhaps, some will choose Performance first, others due to company policy may look for uptime & etc.

vcbMC-1.0.6 Beta

vcbMC-1.0.7 Lite

http://www.no-x.org

[a2alpha]

I agree with athlon_crazy with the consideration points mentioned and it will depend on your company influences as to the design. Given your setup I would go with 2 vSwitches as follows:

vSwitch0 - Management Network, VM Network - Uplinks vmnic0, vmnic1, vmnic2

vSwitch1 - VMotion - Uplinks - vmnic3

This gives redundancy for the Management network and your VMs as well as performance for the VMs with the multiple NICs.

VMotion gets its own switch and uplink but doesn't need the redundancy as there is no immediate downtime of your VMs if the NIC or link fails. The traffic is also segragated from the main traffic.

Hope this helps,

Dan

[esnmb]

I think this sounds pretty good. I just need to verify with my network guy that there is no issue with vlans, trunking, etc...

Thank you all for you help.

[mittim12]

In some of my fiber attached host I only have 4 NICs. I ended up going with two virtual switches. The first has management network and vmotion on two port groups. VMNIC0 is assigned to management as active NIC with VMNIC1 set as standby. The VMotion port has VMNIC1 as active NIC and VMNIC0 as the standby. I then dedicate the second vSwitch to VM Network with VMNIC2 and VMNIC3. That configuration has worked out well for me.

If you found this or any other post helpful please consider the use of the Helpful/Correct buttons to award points