Secondary Service Console NIC

[ESX-Q]

Q: is it ok to add a secondary service console to vSwitch0 as stand-by ? each nic is physically connected to a different switch

in that case - do I still need to specify an additional isolation response ?

page 168 - is reffering to 2 different vSwitch/Networks - my Q is can I use the same vSwitch for both SC ?

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_resource_mgmt.pdf

[depping]

I would set the isolation response to 30 seconds, this is also a VMware best practice. I wrote an article a while back about Service Console redundancy: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/01/14/service-console-redundancy/

Duncan

My virtualisation blog:

[ESX-Q]

I read your article about it and I have a Q:

your #2 option:

vSwitch0 - 2 Physical nics(vmnic0 & vmnic2) - 1 Portgroup(Service Console)

Service Console active on vmnic0 and vmnic2 with “virtual port id” load balancing.

and than you write "I’ve implemented option 2 a lot, but it’s very prone to physical switch errors and spanning tree problems"

if vmnic0 is active and vmnic2 is on stand-by?

why spanning tree problems?

[kjb007]

If you're running both vmnic's into one switch, and do not have a channelc configured for those two interfaces, you will run into spanning tree, as both ports are going to the same segment, creating a loop. Mind you, this would not hurt us, but the physical switches don't see what they are connected to, per se, and only see two ports to the same segment. This is where issues arrise. If you have the NIC's teamed, and are using load-balancing, then you have both NICs in active/active. If you don't, and are using active/standby, then you shouldn't run into this issue.

If you do run active/active, which I also do, as well as run the pNICs to separate switches, then make sure you use portfast on the physical switch ports, and you should be fine.

-KjB

[depping]

kjb007 is correct. when both are active and the SC flips to the other nic, you better have portfast enabled otherwise STP will kick in and your heartbeat will be lost.

Duncan

My virtualisation blog:

[ESX-Q]

so to summeries:

if I put 2 Nics on one vSwitch on one Port Group "Service Console"

each NIC connected to a different Physical SW

and one Nic is Active the other is Stand-By

and Fallback is set to "Yes"

and route based on the originating virtual port ID

is that ok?

[Texiwill]

Hello,

You also have to set PortFast to Enabled on all ports connected to an VMware ESX host.

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

[ESX-Q]

is this option is recommended?

vSwitch0 - 2 Physical nics(vmnic0 & vmnic2) - 2 Portgroups(Service Console & VMkernel)

Service Console active on vmnic0 and standby on vmnic2

VMkernel active on vmnic2 and standby on vmnic0

my vmkernel and service console using the same network range

[kjb007]

This will work just fine. In fact, you don't have to put either NIC in standby. Just move them both to active, but for service console, make sure vmnic0 is the top NIC and vmnic2 is next, and do vice versa for vmkernel.

-KjB