VMGuest needs access to two different subnets in HA

[jungjedi]

Hello all, I am new to VMWare and trying to get up to speed on wrapping my brain around new concepts. I have an HA environment with 2 hosts. Each Host has a 4 port 1GB NIC for usage for Guests/Management /vMotion. I also have some constraints. All of my Guests operate on the same VLAN. I have to simulate a separate subnet for an external facing VM (Which needs access to both subnets). Finally I need to maintain vMotion and Management. I fully expect the VM that requires both subnets to also be my big hog for bandwidth.

Nic1- vMotion & Management (VMKernal—internal subnet ---with Fixed IP address)

Nic2- VMGuests for all other Guests (internal subnet access )

Nic3- VMGuest Bandwidth Hog (Internal subnet access)

Nic4- VMGuest Bandwidth Hog (External facing subnet)

Is this an acceptable setup for an HA ESXi host with these constraints? Do I need to put up some more info for some informed help?

[iw123]

Hi,

Without vlans you're a bit limited in terms of what you can do as you'll need to dedicate each physical nic to a particular subnet, which you have detailed. The problem with that is that there is no redundancy in terms of your management and vmotion networks, or for any of the vm networks. It depends on your environment as to whether this is important.

[Gkeerthy]

are you created 4 vswtiches with 1 pnic each? then this setup is a bad one. There is no redundancy in the network and you facing single point failure.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/2081240#2081240

http://communities.vmware.com/message/2081040#2081040

refer the above threads, where you will get an idea how to design the network.

if the vm need to be present in the multiple network, then give 2 vnics and attache to the 2 portgroups. If all the hosts have the same portgroups the vmotion will work.

[jungjedi]

Your response was VERY helpful as were the links you posted.
I am willing to utiluize VLANs to accomplish  the task of giving the requisiteVM access to another subnet.

I currently have the setup done with 3 of the NIC ports teamed in IP HASH via trunking on an HP switch.
I would love to retain that load balancing/redundancy but I do not have the technical expertise to

understand how to configure the VLAN though the vSwitch without using another pNIC.

I forgot to mention that I utilize the 4th port of the NIC solely for vMotion on a seperate VLAN.(current setup)

Can someone clarify, please?

[jungjedi]

I was trying to get this configuration up and running.

http://www.jeremygood.net/2012/01/multiple-subnets-with-one-vmware-esxi.html

I have made a port group attached to an external facing vlan inside the vSwitch of the 3 NIC team.
But when I try to add another vNIC to the Guest VM the Primary vNIC stops responding.

I lose connection to the guest OS until I console in and disable the second vNIC.

Any ideas?

[jungjedi]

The loss of Host was a networking (trunking) issue with HP switches. I failed over to Nic Teaming via recent IP and then created a vSwitch which recieved 4095 VLAN. Htne I attached a new vNic to (vx3 type) to the new vSwitch and ran a VLAN on the vx3 of the desired VLAN ID. THis worked.

THanks all.

P.s. Be careful about teaming NICS on any HP switch using IP HASH.

[jungjedi]

Thanks for all the help.