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vcpguy
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Network design with 10 nics?

Hi,

I am working on a ESX server implementatoin project, can you all please tell me how, can I use the 10 nics on the server, for best utilization?

I was thinking on these lines

2 nics for the service console.

2 nics for Vmotion

3 nics for the Virtual machine

Now sure, what to do with 10 other nics.

Any suggestions/ideas will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

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Kahonu84
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Aloha - We are about to swap out our dual-port NICs with quads, giving us 14 pNICs per host (two on-board also). This is my intended layout -

vSwitch0 - Service Console - 2 pNICs

vSwitch1 - Service Console for iSCSI SAN - 2 pNICs (VMotion enabled)

vSwitch2 - Internal Network VMs #1 - 2 pNICs

vSwitch3 - Internal Network VMs #2 - 2 pNICs

vSwitch4 - Internal Network VMs #3 - 2 pNICs

vSwitch5 - DMZ Network VMs - 2 pNICs

vSwitch6 - SAN Data Storage (for VMs using iSCSI initiator) - 2 pNICs

Hopefully this will give you some ideas.

Bill

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Mark_Bradley
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To be honest, I would not worry about using all the NICs if you don't need them... you never know what may happen in the future, so available NICs may well come in handy.

For example, you set the ESX servers up with 2 nics for SC, 2 nics for VMotion and 4 for VM Network. So this leaves you with 4 available NICs from the 10 NICs. Then say you want to add iSCSI later on, you can do this with no need to either add cards or remove capacity from existing switches. Another possible use that may come up later on is having the DMZ network available on ESX, the spare ports would come in very useful in that scenario as well.

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Texiwill
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Hello,

Minimally:

2 pNICs for SC

2 pNICs for VMotion

2 pNICs for VMs

alternative networks possible.....

2 pNICs for NFS

2 pNICs for iSCSI

2 pNICs for DMZ

Having spare pNIC is always desirable..


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
azn2kew
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My standard architecture for virtual network is:

1. pNIC1->SC/VMotion

2. pNIC2->VMotion/SC

3. pNIC3-4->VM Network

4. pNIC5-6->DMZ Network

5. pNIC7-8->Backup Network (VCB or NetBackup)

6. pNIC9-10->NFS/iSCSI or any uses.

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

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!! Regards, Stefan Nguyen VMware vExpert 2009 iGeek Systems Inc. VMware vExpert, VCP 3 & 4, VSP, VTSP, CCA, CCEA, CCNA, MCSA, EMCSE, EMCISA
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Texiwill
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Hello,

However, if you do not need to combine SC/Vmotion on the same pair of pNICs it is actually more secure. This however depends on your trust of VLANs and whether or not you want to use VLANs.


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
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Kahonu84
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Aloha - We are about to swap out our dual-port NICs with quads, giving us 14 pNICs per host (two on-board also). This is my intended layout -

vSwitch0 - Service Console - 2 pNICs

vSwitch1 - Service Console for iSCSI SAN - 2 pNICs (VMotion enabled)

vSwitch2 - Internal Network VMs #1 - 2 pNICs

vSwitch3 - Internal Network VMs #2 - 2 pNICs

vSwitch4 - Internal Network VMs #3 - 2 pNICs

vSwitch5 - DMZ Network VMs - 2 pNICs

vSwitch6 - SAN Data Storage (for VMs using iSCSI initiator) - 2 pNICs

Hopefully this will give you some ideas.

Bill

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PBCC
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You never know what you will need the NICs for but they are great to have just in case. Besides, I have had ESX re-order the NICs after adding a new one. Not fun. NICs are relatively cheap, do it now. Smiley Happy

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depping
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So with an average of 0.5% utilization of your nics that's really useful indeed. I would keep the money in my pocket...






Duncan

My virtualisation blog:

http://www.yellow-bricks.com

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