networking issue

[mjohn3]

I have installed ESX 3.5 and done teaming of two NICs for data. I can only see traffic on one nic not on other..............also how to increase networking utilisation on specific guest (windows-2003) installed on that host.

[mittim12]

What load balance method did you choose for the vSwitch port groups that the guest VM's are connected to?

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[mjohn3]

It seem that "Explicit failover order" load balancing is there. Another admin has configured it.

Also, one virtual machine port group you can see and in the NIC teaming option of that "Data" group, I can see Load balancing is "Route based on the originating virtual port ID" So, look at attached screen shot. In that loadbancing both the nic vmnic0/1 are showing active & they are in fail-over mode. I am not sure with this config.

So, I am not sure it is best or not. Can you give me any new idea to increase network performance and also increase network usage on one of my guest -- win-2003.

[mittim12]

Here is a link that details the options available for load balancing.

Route based on the originating virtual switch port ID - Choose an uplink based on the virtual port where the traffic entered the virtual switch. This is the default configuration and the one most commonly deployed.

When you use this setting, traffic from a given virtual Ethernet adapter is consistently sent to the same physical adapter unless there is a failover to another adapter in the NIC team.

Replies are received on the same physical adapter as the physical switch learns the port association.

This setting provides an even distribution of traffic if the number of virtual Ethernet adapters is greater than the number of physical adapters.

Scott Lowe also has a nice write up on NIC teaming

So, I am not sure it is best or not. Can you give me any new idea to increase network performance and also increase network usage on one of my guest -- win-2003.

The NIC assigned to the VM will never exceed the amount of bandwidth of the physical NIC. So if you have a 1GB physical NIC then the NIC assigned to the VM will never be able to exceed that amount.

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[glynnd1]

mjohn3, am I right in understanding that you want to drive more then 1gbit of traffic to/from the VM?

[mjohn3]

Yes I want to increase traffic.

[mittim12]

Here is an interesting thread on NIC Teaming inside a VM.

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[BenConrad]

Based on your screenshot I see traffic on 2 of the 3 adapters. In addition, you're pushing ~10KB per second. Let the load build up on the links, if you are not happy with the load distribution investigate the other vSwitch LB options. Note: 1Gb/s is actually a lot of throughput, about 125MB/s in each direction minus some packet header overhead. Since you seem to have 3Gb/s you should be fine.

Ben

[mjohn3]

Hi,

How you calculated traffic of 3Gb/s. Can you show me calculation?

[BenConrad]

My bad.

2.png has 3 nics in the screenshot

1.png has 2 nics in the vSwitch screenshot. So I guess it's 2Gb/s.

Ben