Multiple NIC utilization

[a_user]

I have a server with four nics. I have one configured for the service console and for a remote NFS share storing ISO's. If I create a new vswitch, say vSwitch1 and add the remaining three NIC's to this vswitch then assign all my VM's to vswitch 1, will ESX handle the utilization and simulatneous access of these three nics across the vm's? In other words will ESX treat these pooled NIC's as a virtual team and aggregate the use of these NIC's into one large available pool of network access or do I need to say, assign 10 vms to one nic, another 10 vm's to another nic and so on.

Thanks

[Yattong]

Have a read of this document. It should help you understand how the networking side of things work in ESX.

www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_301_201_server_config.pdf

Good Luck

[azn2kew]

I would assign these connections if using four NICs.

1. NIC1->Service Console/VMotion for standby

2. NIC2->VMotion/Service Console for standby

3. NIC3-4->Virtual Machine Network (bind NIC teaming)

4. NIC5-6->DMZ/Spare

Ideally, you should have 6 NICs for all production servers to have DMZ port and spare NICs in placed.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems LLC.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[rossb2b · Accepted solution]

When you team nics for your VMs you have a few options for Load Balancing:

Route based on the originating virtual port ID

Route based on IP hash

Route based on source MAC hash

Use explicit failover order

The default is "Route based on the originating virtual port ID". If your nics are all set as Active Adapters, the vms will ditribute their load across the available adapters. Once a vm starts using a specific adaptor in this scenario it will continue to use the same adaptor until something causes it to change, such as a nic failover, power cycle of VM.

-rick

[Ken_Cline]

will ESX treat these pooled NIC's as a virtual team and aggregate the use of these NIC's into one large available pool of network access

Yes, and no.

Yes, all of the pNICs affiliated with a single vSwitch are available for use by all of the VMs connecting to that vSwitch.

No, the pNICs will not be aggregated into a single 3Gbps link - it will be treated as three distinct 1Gbps links. There are a variety of load balancing options available to distribute the network traffic across the pNICs.

Ken Cline

Technical Director, Virtualization

Wells Landers

VMware Communities User Moderator

[a_user]

Thanks. This has answered my question. I just wanted to ensure that the three NIC's I configured on vSwitch 1 to handle the VM traffic would automatically be assigned to a VM and that I didnt have to manually specify each nic for each VM.