ESX network configuration

[CvB1234]

Hi All,

I am in the process of implementing our ESX server infrastructure and am seeking some advice on how to best configure the network interfaces.

I am using five HP DL380 G5 servers as my host boxes and each system has four physical interfaces. My initial plan is to use them as follows:

NIC0 - vSwitch0 - Production Traffic & Service Console (Teamed, 1000BT)

NIC1 - vSwitch0 - Production Traffic & Service Console (Teamed, 1000BT)

NIC2 - vSwitch0 - VMotion Network (1000BT)

NIC3 - vSwitch1 - Dedicated DMZ network (1000BT)

In this configuration the VMotion network has no failover NIC. Is it possible to configure the NIC2 as prefered and NIC0/NIC1 as failover NIC only for the VMotion Network?

Any comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

-CvB

[Prashanth_John]

Hi

Ideally i would have a virtual switch created for the service console.

The 2nd Vswitch i would have the vm network configured

The 3rd Vswitch i would use for VMotion.

[Prashanth_John]

If your vm traffic over the physical network is high you could think adding a 2nd pnics to the 2nd Vswitch

[CvB1234]

Hey,

Yes, but what about redundancy of the NIC's?

Per vSwitch at minimum two NIS's I think?

Regards,

Co van Berkel

[CvB1234]

Hey John,

Yep, but we have 4 PNIC's.

Is it possible to configure the "VMotion Network" as follow?

\- vSwitch0:

- VMkernel - Active Adapters:

1e - vmnic2

2e - vmnic0 (Teamed with vmnic1)

3e - vmnic1 (Teamed with vmnic0)

- Production Traffic & Service Console - Active Adapters:

1e - vmnic0 (Teamed with vmnic1)

2e - vmnic1 (Teamed with vmnic0)

\- vSwitch1:

- Dedicated DMZ network - Active Adapters:

1e - vmnic3

Regards,

Co van Berkel