Reconfiguring/Adding Vmotion and FT networks

[TandyBrands]

Hey Folks,

I've come into a VMware setup that includes 3 hosts (5.5 Enterprise licensing), with HA turned on.  As I am trying to understand more of the advanced features, it seems that the Network is not configured in the best way. This was initially determined when I attempted to learn a bit more about FT, and the first message I got was that there was no FT network defined.  So I dived into the network configuration of each host, and found the following:

As can be seen from this picture, There is no FT or vMotion network defined.  So, the question of the day would be, Can I add these into the to each host (with its own IP address range) without impacting production? My placement of these networks would be on vSwitch1.  Normally, I would also have the Management network on the same switch (where all of the kernel port services would be on one vSwitch, and the VM's on the other switch, but like I said, this was inherited by me).

Thanks in advance for the assist.

James

[brunofernandez1]

have a look on the properties of vmk0, 1 and 2.

maybe VMotion and FT are enabled on the same VMKPort...

[TandyBrands]

Thanks Bruno for responding back.

Actually, you are correct.  vMotion is enabled on the iSCSI Path1 and iSCSI Path 2 defined vmk's

I did not, however, find the FT logging turned on anywhere. So, would I A) just install the FT as a separate network/vmk, or B) do that AND create another vmk to separate out the vMotion network?

[brunofernandez1]

ok cool.

I would prefer to reconfigure the whole network configuration. the actual configuration is a little bit shit

but this was not your question. if you wan't to use FT for a lot of VMs i would create a new vswitch and vmk and activate it for vmotion.

btw. why is the second port allways down? on the vswitch i would put both online and then for each portgroup configure one vmnic as active and the other one as standby.

so you could use 1gbit/s on each portgroup.

[TandyBrands]

Like you assessed, the design is sloppy and flawed.  Both interfaces are set to "active" which ends up making one of the two as a standby.  The second interface should be in standby for one service, and be primary for another service within the vswitch.  That's my final assumption.

So I'm open to any suggestions, I just need to make sure I keep the network up. The reason for the FT requirement was actually my own, as I continue to try to learn a bit more. So as to number of images, basically one from a test perspective.

Thanks,

James

[brunofernandez1]

how much vmnics are available? with this information i can make you a small sketch how I would configure the network on this esx server...

[TandyBrands]

Four NICs on each host (three hosts total).

[brunofernandez1 · Accepted solution]

here is my recommendation

this recommendation is only if you just wanna play with FT....

in a productive environment i would recommend to ad two vmnic to split iscsi traffic and vmotion/FT traffic.

regards