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syn3rgy
Contributor
Contributor

Networking Configuration\Design

Hi All,

Firstly, I’m still learning about vSphere etc. so please be gently Smiley Happy

Our company is looking at implementing vSphere 5, we have an existing virtual environment however, we will be building a new one from the grounds up which is great as it is a perfect opportunity for me to learn and progress.

I guess, with any implementation you need a design, in my case i need a little help from you all with the network design. Below is the specification of the equipment: We will be purchasing 3 DL360G7x5650 with the following spec:

Quantity Per Host:

Server:        DL360G7x5650

Ram:          48 GB

NIC Ports:  12 Total - (2x4port PCI and 2xDuel ports Onboard)

HDD:          2x72GB 6G SAS 15K

We will also be looking to purchase 2x 24 (maybe 48) port Cisco gigabyte switches.

The idea I was thinking for the network side would be:


Create 4 new VLAN's as follows:

NameSubnet
vMGMT_60192.168.60.*
viSCSI_61192.168.61.*
vProduction_62192.168.62.*
vMotion_63192.168.63.*

Host Configuration:

vLANHOST 1HOST 2HOST 3
vMGMT_60192.168.60.1192.168.60.2192.168.60.3
viSCSI_61192.168.61.1192.168.61.2192.168.61.3
vProduction_62192.168.62.1192.168.62.2192.168.62.3
vMotion_63192.168.63.1192.168.63.2192.168.63.3

Each host will be given 2 NIC's per functionality such as below:

vLANNIC 1NIC 2
vMGMT_60ACTIVEPASSIVE
viSCSI_61ACTIVEACTIVE
vProduction_62ACTIVEACTIVE
vMotion_63ACTIVEACTIVE

Which gives me a pretty picture like this:

Capture.JPG

Please let me know your thoughts and if I have completely missed the mark, as I said in the very beginning, I am verynew to this and welcome your contributions

Thank you

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weinstein5
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Welcome to the Community - Your design looks good - and whats nice is you stil have 4 avalble NIC ports that  can be used later if the need for bandwidth is needed -

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syn3rgy
Contributor
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Thank you Smiley Happy

I wanted to spread each connection over the NIC’s so that there was no single point of failure however, as you said, I have 4 ports available to add additional should I require the bandwidth, though, if I were to add FT with a failover, these would be on the same NIC so maybe I should change it so I have at least 1 free port on each NIC? or, would you just add it to the same Vlan as vMotion and add an additional NIC + vNIC to provide additional band width?

Thank you again for taking the time to provide feedback, always great to know that there are people that will offer assistance when need Smiley Happy

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syn3rgy
Contributor
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Following on from my original post, I have now been looking at the vSwitch configuration, below is what I have in mind:

vswitch.JPG

I do have a query about vSwitch 1 (ISCSI), from what I understand from Dells Best Practices, for every physical NIC an additional VMkernel port should be created so you have a 1:1 session ratio .

With that in mind, if my 3 hosts are each configured with sequential IP's as below

vLANHOST 1HOST 2HOST 3
viSCSI_61192.168.61.1192.168.61.2192.168.61.3




Would that mean, on each host (since there are 2 NIC's each for iSCSI) that I would then need to create an additional VMkernel port such as below:

vLANHOST 1HOST 2HOST 3
viSCSI_61192.168.61.1192.168.61.2192.168.61.3
viSCSI_2_61192.168.61.4192.168.61.5192.168.61.6

Thank you.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

I'm not familiar with DELL's best practice, so I cannot answer this question right now.

Regarding Management and vMotion, I usually place these two port groups on one vSwitch and configure the vmnics on the port groups for active/standby to make sure each port group uses its dedicated NIC and only fails over to the other one in case of a link loss. Even though you have enough NICs in the host, IMO there's no need to "waste" NICs. I would rather attach the NICs to the Virtual Machine port group.

André

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syn3rgy
Contributor
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Hi André

I do see what you are saying, though, if you were doing a lot of P2V or now that vSphere 5 allows you to vmotion more VMs in one go, would it now be better to allocate the service console and vmotion ports their own NIC?

Given what you mentioned above, is this how you would do it?

Physical Network -revised.JPG

vswitch-Revised.JPG

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rmkohl
Contributor
Contributor

syn3rgy

you're right, that configuration is correct, I sent a reference document for dell MD3000 iSCSI storage that can serve to check the settings

regards

Rolando Mariano Kohl

De: syn3rgy

Enviado el: Thursday, July 21, 2011 7:58 AM

Para: KOHL ROLANDO MARIANO

Asunto: New message: "Networking Configuration\Design"

VMware Communities<http://communities.vmware.com/index.jspa>

Networking Configuration\Design

reply from syn3rgy<http://communities.vmware.com/people/syn3rgy> in ESXi - View the full discussion<http://communities.vmware.com/message/1796175#1796175

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syn3rgy
Contributor
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Hi Rolando,

Sorry, Which one is correct? the very first diagrams i posted or the last one?

also, where could I find the document you mentioned? I have had a quick look through
Configuring VMware vSphere Software iSCSI with Dell EqualLogic PS Series Storage

Thank you

Rob

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Given what you mentioned above, is this how you would do it?

Not exactly. What I meant was:

Management - vmnic2 active, vmnic6 standby

vMotion - vmnic6 active - vmnic2 standby

This way each of the two port groups has its own dedicated NIC and you would also have redundancy in case one of the links doesn't work.

André

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rmkohl
Contributor
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Rob, sorry the correct diagram is the last,

Here post the configuration of Storage MD3000i and vSphere

http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/VMwareESX4.0andPowerVault+MD3000i

If you have any questions contact me

Rolando Mariano Kohl

Plataformas WinIntel

Gcia. de Infraestructura Tecnológica

Banco Hipotecario S.A.

Tel: (54 11) 4346-2659

De: syn3rgy

Enviado el: Thursday, July 21, 2011 12:36 PM

Para: KOHL ROLANDO MARIANO

Asunto: New message: "Networking Configuration\Design"

VMware Communities<http://communities.vmware.com/index.jspa>

Networking Configuration\Design

reply from syn3rgy<http://communities.vmware.com/people/syn3rgy> in ESXi - View the full discussion<http://communities.vmware.com/message/1796489#1796489

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rmkohl
Contributor
Contributor

You need change in vMotion_63 port group the NIC 1 to PASSIVE

vLANNIC 1NIC 2
vMGMT_60ACTIVEPASSIVE
viSCSI_61ACTIVEACTIVE
vProduction_62ACTIVEACTIVE
vMotion_63PASSIVEACTIVE
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