Network on ESXI standalone

[Centosuser]

Dear all,

i have ESXi Standalone with two NIC 1GB,

i have in the meantime one NIC is availble for the management and on the same time for the traffic, the second NIC is down just for failover backup,

can you please tell me what is the best way to have those two NICS configured to have the VM infrastructuur up and running on a best way?

on my ESXI i have

FS, DC,EX and Vyatta Firewall with two NICS, all those VMS are using one NIC

[a_p_]

If I understand you correctly you have only one vSwitch with one active vmnic (assumingly configured with multiple port  groups and VLANS)? There's no reason why you shouldn't add a second active vmnic to the vSwitch. Make sure that the physical switch port is configured properly and leave the vSwitch policies on defaults (i.e. Route based on Port ID). This way the ESXi host will distribute the load across both uplinks by assigning them to the VM's in a round-robin manner as they are powered on.

André

[Centosuser]

Dear Andre,

yes ome Vswitch with 4 VMS attached to it,

so you suggested create second Vswitch and attach it to the second Physique NIC? so the second Physique NIC need a Physique IP ?

[mittim12]

No, you would want to add the second physical NIC in the first vSwitch.   vSphere will then use both NICS for distribution and redundancy. 

[ScreamingSilenc]

Check the below blog for network best practices with 2 Nic's, though its for 10Gbps you can still have for 1 Gbps.

vSphere 5 network design for 10 Gbps network. | VMwaremine - Mine of knowledge about virtualization

[Centosuser]

this settings i do already have them with 1 NIC and i reach 10GB/s

any more suggestions please?

[julienvarela]

Hi,

For me in your configuration, the best way is to configure one vswitch with 2 port Group.

Network Configuration :

vswitch0 : 2 nics : vmnic0 and vmnic1

     Port Group : "MGMT" : Configuration : vmkernel for management : vmnic0 active and vmnic1 standby

     Port Group : "VM" : Configuration :   Virtual Machine : vmnic 1 active and vmnic0 standby.

So, you will split your traffic  but in case of failure you will be you have a redundancy.

Regards,

Julien.

[Centosuser]

Dear Jullien,

this the way how i configured it.vm0 is the main NIC vm1 is the standby

[julienvarela]

Hi,

I think your vmnic1 is on standby for all your portgroup. Can you attach a screenshot of your port group configuration summary like my screen bottom. Select each port group and take a screenshot please.

regards,

Julien

[Centosuser]

Dear Julien,

please find the attached

[julienvarela]

You have only one vmnic active on your vswitch. Please set the vmnic1 as active too. Then select a port group-click on edit and overwrite the teaming order.

vswitch0 : 2 nics : vmnic0 and vmnic1 as active

     Port Group : "MGMT" : Configuration : vmkernel for management : vmnic0 active and vmnic1 standby

     Port Group : "VM" : Configuration :   Virtual Machine : vmnic 1 active and vmnic0 standby

Regards,

Julien

[a_p_]

As I mentioned in my first reply, add the second vmnic (i.e. make it active) and that's it. IMO there's no need to configure active/standby with your configuration on a stand-alone host. With both vmnics active the load/VMs will be distributed across both uplinks.

André

[Centosuser]

Dear Andre and julien,

thank you for the information really appreciate it !

i've configured the NICS as the next :

for the VM network both are active as showed on the attached

Management i've configured vm0 as main up NIC and vm1 as standby

External Network that my VMS use NIC vm1 as Main up NIC and vm0 as standby

is it correct?

[julienvarela]

Hi,

Sorry, André's configuration is better in your case. You have only one host with a few number of virtual machine. Put simply your both vmnic as active. Your host will load balanced accross your link.

Regards,

Julien.

[Centosuser]

Dear Julien, Andre

thank you so much for the answers and advise, i've configured both NIC's to be up

means i will notice some improvement on the network share?

[julienvarela]

Hi,

Sure always a pleasure to help someone in the community.

means i will notice some improvement on the network share?

That's depend of your nic load. If you nic was overloaded you should see some improvement.

Regards,

Julien.