VMware Cloud Community
zenomorph
Contributor
Contributor

vSphere Cluster NIC redundency configuration

We are using 4* HP DL580 x7460 to build a vSphere cluster with HA, DRS, vMotion and Fault Tolerance. We are planning to have 7 NICs in each ESX and just wondering anyone can give some advice on building a redundant NIC design with FC SAN.

With the 7 NICs we'll have Service Console, vMKernal andhe also Team some of the NICs for VM use. Any recommendations on documents for best fault tolerant NIC configuration?

Cheers

Reply
0 Kudos
2 Replies
AntonVZhbankov
Immortal
Immortal

Since you're using FC, no IP storage is needed.

vSwitch1:

-Portgroup "Service Console" - NIC0 active, NIC1 standby, NIC2 standby

-Portgroup VMkernel1 (VMotion) - NIC1 active, NIC0 standby, NIC2 standby

-Portgroup VMkernel2 (Falut Tolerance) - NIC2 active, NIC0 standby, NIC1 standby

At least 2 physical cards must be used - i.e. NIC0-2 can't be on one multiport card.

vSwitch2:

-Portgroup "VM Network" - NIC3-6 active, IP-hash


---

MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

EMCCAe, HPE ASE, MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4/5, VMware vExpert XO (14 stars)
VMUG Russia Leader
http://t.me/beerpanda
Reply
0 Kudos
ADVM
Contributor
Contributor

We have a similar requirements (Fault Tolerance & High Availability) but we have a slightly different hardware setup:

2 ESXi hosts with 8 NICs (1 quad-port (A), 2 dual-ports (B & C)) in each host

Physical NIC A (NICs 1-4)

Physical NIC B (NICs 5-6)

Physical NIC C (NICs 7-8)

We are using iSCSI SAN for storage. In addition to redundant core switches, we have redundant iSCSI switches.

Switch 1

Switch 2

Switch 3 - iSCSI

Switch 4 - iSCSI

What would you recommend for a configuration here? My question is mainly surrounding the redundancy of the Management Network portion. So far we have:

VSwitch1:

NIC 1 - VMKernel Management Network into Switch 2 (Switch 1 for other host)

NIC 2 - VMKernel VMotion into Switch 1 (Switch 2 for other host)

VSwitch2:

NIC 4 - VMKernel iSCSI (w/ NIC 5 teamed but unused) into Switch 3

NIC 5 - VMKernel iSCSI (w/ NIC 4 teamed but unused) into Switch 4

VSwitch3:

NIC 3 - VM Network Port Group + VMKernel Management Network into Switch 1

NIC 8 - VM Network Port Group + VMKernel Management Network into Switch 2

VSwitch4:

NIC 6 - VMKernel Fault Tolerant Logging into Switch 1

NIC 7 - VMKernel Fault Tolerant Logging into Switch 2

I have a feeling this is becoming unnecessarily overcomplicated....

Reply
0 Kudos