How would you assign Ethernet ports?

[ssSFrankSss]

Hi,

If you had to assign 10 Ethernet ports (8x1GB & 2x10GB) between different aspects of vsphere: NAS (as back up), vSAN, vMotion, Fault Tolerance, for VMs, management network etc. How would you split them?

I am interested in hearing your opinion, thank you,

Frank

[hussainbte]

vSAN recommendations ask for 1 10GB nic.. so iIl give 1 GB nic to vSAN

the 2nd 10GB I will use for Production network, I need good bandwidth there

The renaming 8x1 GB nics can be clubbed together and used for FT,Backup,vMotion and Management..

2 nics for management for redundancy.

[hussainbte]

typo in the 1st statement

vSAN recommendations ask for  10GB nic.. so iIl give 1x10GB nic to vSAN

[ssSFrankSss]

I would prefer to keep management on a separate vLAN so it is not vulnerable to hackers or viruses. Also the 10GB switch is different than the production switch which is 1gbit. And there are also physical computers among virtual.

[hussainbte]

I would prefer to keep management on a separate vLAN so it is not vulnerable to hackers or viruses .. this is absolutely fine..

Also the 10GB switch is different than the production switch which is 1gbit -- so I understand the VM network is using a 1GB switch.. so you cannot redirect the production vm traffic using 10GB nics..

OK.. then you should you the 10GB nic for NAS and vMotion.

you can use multiple 1GB nics for production vm traffic

[daphnissov]

Without knowing about your requirements (which influence this decision greatly), I would do:

2 x 1 GbE: Management

2 x 1 GbE: NAS (backup, use NFS 4.1 with multi-pathing)

2/4 x 1 GbE: VM traffic

2 x 10 GbE: vMotion, vSAN, FT

[ssSFrankSss]

I am going to have maximum 10 vms per host I don't think they are many. So I was thinking something like yours! When you say 2/4 x1 you mean two vSwitches to split the traffic, +1 uplink for nic teaming?

My other though was:

2 x 1 GbE: Management

2 x 1 GbE: NAS (backup, use NFS 4.1 with multi-pathing)

2 x 1 GbE: VM traffic

2 x 1 GbE: vMotion

2 x 10 GbE: vSAN, FT (not so important for me, I can live with HA)

[daphnissov · Accepted solution]

When I said 2/4 I meant "two or four uplinks for VM traffic". That all depends what type of throughput you're expecting from those VMs. 2 x 1 GbE uplinks for VMs will suffice if you aren't doing lots. Even still, put them on a vDS and set the teaming policy to route based on physical NIC load. For vMotion, use multi-NIC vMotion to get full use out of both of those uplinks. There's a KB on its configuration here.