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schlegelm
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Strange Dataflow during vMotion

Hello,

we've got 6 ESXi4 Hosts, managed by a vCenter 4.1 instance.

All Hosts have the same Network-Configuration:

vSwitch0:

Management Traffic

Interfaces: vmnic0, vmnic5 (active/standby)

VLAN: 81

IP: 10.80.1.11-16

vmk0: Management Traffic enabled

vSwitch1:

VM Network

Interfaces: vmnic1

vSwitch2:

Internal Network

Interfaces: none

vSwitch3:

NFS Storage

Interfaces: vmnic2, vmnic6 (active/standby)

VLAN: 80

IP: 10.80.0.21-26

vmk1: No extra Kernel Operation enabled

vSwitch4:

vMotion Network

Interfacs: vmnic3

VLAN 81

IP: 10.80.1.31-36

vmk2: vMotion enabled

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If i start a vMotion-Operation, i expect the Traffic to flow from vmnic3 of the Source-ESXi Server to vmnic3 of the Target-ESXi, but instead the sending Interface is vmnic0 (the Management Interface) and the receiving Interface vmnic3. This happens in every direction i've tested.

Is there something wrong or is this normal behaviour?

Thanks for your replies

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rickardnobel
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It is somewhat unexpected, but perhaps it in the end is IP routing from the sending host that decides the outgoing interface. This might make the Vmkernel to not respect your vMotion tag on the sending interface, since you have the same VLAN and same IP range on both Management and vMotion.

It will most likely be "correct" if you set another IP range on the vMotion VMKnic, like 192.168.200.x. You can still share the same VLAN if wished.

My VMware blog: www.rickardnobel.se

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rickardnobel
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It is somewhat unexpected, but perhaps it in the end is IP routing from the sending host that decides the outgoing interface. This might make the Vmkernel to not respect your vMotion tag on the sending interface, since you have the same VLAN and same IP range on both Management and vMotion.

It will most likely be "correct" if you set another IP range on the vMotion VMKnic, like 192.168.200.x. You can still share the same VLAN if wished.

My VMware blog: www.rickardnobel.se
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schlegelm
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Yes, it looks like thats the reason. I changed the IPs of the vMotion-Adapters to another subnet and moved a VM. The sending Interface is now correct vmnic3!

Thanks for your reply!

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