Managment and vMotion on L3

[vSohill]

Hi,

Is L3 network supported for Management and vMotion traffic ?

[a_p_]

Yes, current vSphere versions offer a separate TCP/IP-Stack for vMotion.

André

[sk84 · Accepted solution]

To have the vMotion traffic routed across IP subnets, enable the vMotion TCP/IP stack on the host.

Source: vSphere vMotion Networking Requirements

So, yes. At least for vSphere 6.7 vMotion over a L3 network is supported.

And I also found a reference for the routing of the management network in a stretched cluster setup:

Management network requires connectivity across all three sites, using a Layer 2 stretched network or a Layer 3 network.

Source: Network Design for Stretched Clusters

At least in such a setup a L3 network for management traffic is fine.

But if you're already asking if vMotion and Management traffic can run over a Layer 3 network, the question is what exactly you want to do and if a stretched cluster setup might be useful?

[vSohill]

Thank you SK84 and Andre'

sk84​ Yes it's for a stretched cluster and I would like to not use L2 in the site or between the sides.

sk84 wrote:

At least in such a setup a L3 network for management traffic is fine.

Should management network be on the same  broadcast domain ?

in the use case from the link you shared, I think static route must be added as it mentioned. Is there any case when we don't need to add static route?

"Consider a vSAN network that is stretched over two data sites on a Layer 2 broadcast domain (for example, 172.10.0.0) and the witness host is on another broadcast domain (for example, 172.30.0.0). If the VMkernel adapters on a data site try to connect to the vSAN network on the witness host, the connection fails because the default gateway on the ESXi host is associated with the management network. There is no route from the management network to the vSAN network

You can use static routes to resolve this issue. Define a new routing entry that indicates which path to follow to reach a particular network. For a vSAN network on a stretched cluster, you can add static routes to ensure proper communication across all hosts."