vSwitch Configuration

[monkey141]

Hello All,

I am pretty new to vmware (less than 6 months). I have taken the ICM class and am studying for the vcp. I am working on my first installation and have a question. The customer is using lacp on their network so I have 4 vmnics, 2 to each of 2 seperate physical switches. I have virtual switches to mirror the physical conenctivity and have nic teaming configured. My question is, is this the appropriate way to setup it up? Is there a better way? When I start builiding vm's, is it best to configure teaming in the vm with a nic to each vswitch?

I appreciate any comments, reading suggestions or recommendations.

Thanks,

Mike

[Mouhamad]

Hello Mike,

I think you need to provide us with more information in order to properly help you designing your network.

1- Are you using ESX or ESXi?

2- Which version?

3- How many hosts are you using?

4- What features are you planing to use in case you're runing more than a host? (vMotion, FT, DRS, etc.)

The below KB will help you with details about LACP:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1004048&sl...

Regards,

Mouhamad

[krishna_v78]

Hi,

Best way would be configuring NIC teaming at vswitch level, you can use either load balancing or failover options using 2 VMNICs.

connect the VMs to that vswtich, so that by default VMs will have redundancy incase if any one of the NIC connection is lost.

As a best practice, also configure secondary management Network for ESX Management

Regards,

Balu.

[monkey141]

Mouhamad,

Thanks. Sorry it was a little vague.

So we are running ESXi 4.1. I have 4 physical hosts. As far as features, definitely vMotion and probably FT.

So let me elaborate a little more after a good nights sleep! 🙂

The KB article you pointed me to is great, I had actually read that before posting and it is really helpful. I think what is throwing me off if the fact that there are two physical switches both with an A&B network. I have the switches trunked to the physical switches and each host has two nics into each switch. The plan was to create a vswitch to match each physical switch on each host. For the VM's, the plan was for a vnic in each vswitch with nic teaming for failover so that we could service one of the physical switches without interuppting service for the vm's.

Thanks,

Mike

[Mouhamad]

Hello Mike,

First, forget about creating 2 vSwitches and connect each one to a seperate switch, this is not how you need to do your failover/redundancy.

I would strongly recommend that you add another 2 NICs for each host to make the total number of NICs 4 on each one.

2 x NICs will be used for the VMKernel switch - Management

the same above 2 x NICs will be used for the vMotion traffic 

2 x NICs will be used for the VMs network.

Check the attached, it shows you how you configure the vSS having multiples vmnics as Active.

This article is really nice on how to design a 6 NICs host, it will be a help for you to better understand: http://www.kendrickcoleman.com/index.php?/Tech-Blog/vsphere-host-nic-design-6-nics.html

[bulletprooffool]

Morning Monkey,

Have you had a run through this - http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=one&id_subject=23970 ?

It is free training, self paced - so should be a good refresher to run you through your setup - possibly remind you of anything your forgot.