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Pmarsha1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

NFS datastores, limited connectivity options

NetApp FAS2020 cluster, each head having two 1GB NICs

Option 1)

1 NIC for NFS one for LAN CIFs File access per head

Option 2)

Both NICs teamed for NFS and LAN CIFs file access on each head

Which would you go for and why?

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AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal

If you have only 2 available NIC choose option 2.

But configure NFS portgroup to use 1 NIC active and the second in standby and CIFS portgroup to use the second NIC and the first in stanby.

So you do not mix traffic, but have at least fail-over.

Andre

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Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

Option 2 for me as well. Always keep redundancy in mind, especially if you are using that storage as basis for all of your virtual machines.

-KjB

VMware vExpert

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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Pmarsha1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Perhaps you all misunderstood my OP

It's the filer NICs not the ESX Hosts that has two connections.

So I have redundancy already designed in ESX but it's the option as to how I connect to the filer.

i.e. one team both filer NICs and have NFS access from ESX hosts share the same connectivity with the rest of the corporate network. The filers will also host Windows shares

or the other option 1 Nic on the filer dedicated to the ESX host NFS access and 1 used for Windows share access from VMs / Physical boxes / Workstations

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

My post was for the filer side. Since you only have 2 NICs, how are you managing redundancy to the filer without the NIC team? Or do you mean 2 NICs per filer, with a 2 head configuration? If the latter, then I would segregate the traffic between the NICs.

-KjB

VMware vExpert

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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Pmarsha1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

The question really boils down to either ESX having dedicated access to the filer or shared with other access such as Windows shares.

There is also a plan to have some VMs with iSCSI NICs hence my thoughts on dedicated access for the ESX hosts

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

Ok, so your real question is whether or not to share access to the filer for ESX and your network, and not NFS vs iSCSI. I would not necesarilly segregate in that manner. I would share the NICs in a team, in that manner. Your ESX will be able to use the NICs if needed, and won't be limited. Also, depending on how many vm's you plan to run, you will get better performance running both in a team, and not limiting your ESX hosts.

-KjB

VMware vExpert

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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