dvSwitch/standard switch and adding a new cluster into existing Datacentre

[Ajay_Nabh]

Hi Team,

Can I please have your thoughts and guidance on my situation:

Current setup:

Cluster A

3 hosts

6x 1GB NICs (4 used for dvSwitch and 2 for svSwitch)

dvSwitch has 4 NICs and has VM network

svSwitch has 2 NICs and has management/vmotion and VM network

New Setup

Cluster B

3x Hosts

4 NICS (2 NICs for iSCSI storage and 2 for VM network)

Now challenge I have is how can I configure svSwitch and dvSwitch using 2 NICs. As far as I know I cannot.

In new setup if I create svSwitches and move VMs from dvSwitch to svSwitch that would mean downtime for the VMs and reconfiguring networking in the server, Am I right?

Other option is, to add new hosts into the existing dvSwitch but what I am not sure when I add hosts into existing dvswitch, would dvswitch will complain that new hosts do not have same number of NICs? Also in this situation, I would need to setup Management/vMotion network on existing dv switches and any impact of that on existing hosts which already have Management/vMotion network configured on standard switches.

As you may have already guessed I do not know much about dvSwitchesJ

Can you guys please advise what is the best way to go about in this situation?

Thanks

Ajay

[rcporto · Accepted solution]

Now challenge I have is how can I configure svSwitch and dvSwitch using 2 NICs. As far as I know I cannot.

A single physical NIC cannot be used by a Standard Switch or Distributed Switch at the same time. But you can create a VSS or VDS with only one physical NIC temporarily for migration purposes.

In new setup if I create svSwitches and move VMs from dvSwitch to svSwitch that would mean downtime for the VMs and reconfiguring networking in the server, Am I right?

No, if your VSS and VDS are configured properly with correct VLANs and physical NICs, you can migrate from VSS to VDS and vice-versa without downtime. See: Migrating virtual machines between vSwitch or PortGroups to vDS or dvPortgroups (1010612) | VMware K...

Other option is, to add new hosts into the existing dvSwitch but what I am not sure when I add hosts into existing dvswitch, would dvswitch will complain that new hosts do not have same number of NICs?

Yes you can, and you will need at least one physical NIC to the host be able to reach the physical network.

Also in this situation, I would need to setup Management/vMotion network on existing dv switches and any impact of that on existing hosts which already have Management/vMotion network configured on standard switches.

No, the vMotion and Management networks can be on VSS or VDS, and like migrate virtual machine networks, you can migrate the VMkernel interfaces between vSS and VDS without downtime too. See: How to migrate service console / VMkernel port from standard switches to VMware vSphere Distributed ...

[Ajay_Nabh]

Thanks @Richardson Porto for your assistance.

Regards

Ajay

[Ajay_Nabh]

one more question if you will please:

Since I will be adding 3 new hosts into the existing virtual centre, considering the above scenario, would you recommend that I move Management Network and vMotion ports which are on vSS to vDS on existing Hosts in the cluster and then add new hosts in vDS or keep networking on the existing hosts as is and migrate Management Network and vMotion ports into vDS only for new hosts.

I will appreciate if could shed some light on my thoughts above.

Regards

Ajay