Teaming and failover

[Hanson2020]

Hello, try to undestand what happened if missmatch load balancing on vitrual and phisical switch https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc/GUID-AB50CD25-4A34-4... what mean " No changes on the physical switch are required."? only 2 different ports on catalyst, whitout any configuration? if on Virt switch i set Mac Hash and on phis switch create port-channell (cisco catalyst) what will happen?

[IRIX201110141]

If you create a port-channel on your pSwitch your ESxi network most likely will stop working because when using a port-channel or the better LAG/LACP, Trunk aka 802.3 you need configuration on both sides. I am not sure if the original cisco port-channel will work together with ESXi.

Connecting just multiple network cables to the same or multiple switches is a no-brainer from the ESXi perspective because you get redundancy out of the box and some basic load balancing without the need to touch the pSwitch. So it doesnt matter if you have a cheap 100$ or 1-20000$ network device. ESXi have this since 2003.

Keep in mind that LAG/LACP is a feature of the vDS and not a vSS. Iam not 100% if its impossible to use vSS with a LAG but in the past wit always have use it with the vSphere Distributed Switch.

Regards,
Joerg

[Hanson2020]

thank you for answer,

am i right ?

take two ports on catallyst, configure only VLAN that i need on it, create vSwitch, set all uplink active and MAC Hash as balancing, and no need to difficult with IP hash and Etherchanells

[IRIX201110141]

Youre right.

But i prefer the standard loadbalacing method which is "based on Port ID". Its a simle round robin .. first VM you start is placed on vmnicX, second VM goes onto vmnicY and the third is placed on vmnicX again. Keep it simple.

I assume that 99% off all vSS User use this lb method. Even if you only have 1GbE BaseT and not 10/25G nics i have my doubt that network is your most constrained resource.

Hint: Because you have CISCO gear... enable CDP on your vSwitches and set it to "both". Enable it on the pSwitch also.

Regards
Joerg

[Hanson2020]

thank you for advice,

Port ID or Mac hash?  or it doesn't matter?

CDP enabled on Cisco and i recive some needed information,

now enable both for vSwitch, but Cisco recive a little information onle name of interface (nic0 nic1) and build number

[IRIX201110141]

It does matter.

Check https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc/GUID-AB50CD25-4A34-4... and compare the disadvantages.