New vSphere Cluster Install

[UoGsys]

Very shortly proceeding with the install of our new vSphere cluster based on the following hardware -

HP EVA 6400 8Gb FC

7x DL380 G6 x5550, 32Gb RAM, 4 NIC's (on-board)

With regards to the network setup, I'm undecided between two approaches with the vDS-

2 teamed ports for SC and VM port groups (trunked)

2 teamed ports for vMotion/vmkernel port groups

or trunk all port groups across the 4 interfaces

The latter is obviously the easier to setup and manage, but I'm concerned that vMotion traffic could saturate the interfaces. Are my worries here unfounded, as I suppose we could implement traffic shaping to limit the bandwidth?

Once the above setup is complete we'll be looking to join the fibre fabrics with our existing 3.5 cluster, then storage vmotion VM's across to the new storage. Assuming here there is no problem moving the machines from 3.5 to 4 - this will be an AMD to Intel move so VM's will be powered off then moved.

Any advise/comments (good or bad) greatly appreciated!

[AndreTheGiant]

Is suggest to use this configuration:

• 1 vSwitch with 2 pNIC for COS and vmkernel/VMotion portgroup

• 1 vSwitch with 2 pNIC for VM portgroup

Team policy = portID

In this way you can isolate private/management traffic from VM traffic.

If you use VLAN you can also consider a single vSwitch solution with 4 pNIC and each portgroup tagged in the right VLAN.

Andre

[UoGsys]

Thanks Andre for the helpful advise.

If we do go for VLAN tagging with a single vSwitch and tagged port groups, would you have any concerns with vmotion traffic saturating the interfaces? These interfaces will be Gbit Ethernet. This would be my preference due to ease of config and increased bandwidth/resilience - but I still have this nagging worry regarding vmotion traffic!

Cheers!

[AndreTheGiant · Accepted solution]

Each vmkernel port will use max 1 link (with per portid policy) so you cannot saturate all the card during a VMotion.

Also you can play at portgroup level to set a preferred uplink to "isolate" some traffic on some pNIC.

Andre

[UoGsys]

Thanks Andre - exactly the answer I was after.

10 points to you sir!

[AndreTheGiant]

You're welcome.

PS: from a security point of view remember that VMotion, FT and iSCSI traffic are in "clear".

Also for this reason (and not only the bandwitdth problem) could be useful to isolate on different network.

Andre

[UoGsys]

Thanks again - we're using FC SAN so iSCSI isn't a concern. Also, vMotion, ServiceConsole, VM LAN traffic will all be on completely separate VLAN's/Subnets. Our vMotion VLAN is on a completely isolated network so should be pretty secure even if it is tagged on the same interface. Does this sound ok?

Sorry - networking isn't really my bag, but I've had to 'increase' my knowledge over the past few years due to us adopting VMware!

Cheers

[AndreTheGiant]

Does this sound ok?

Yes

Sorry - networking isn't really my bag, but I've had to 'increase' my knowledge over the past few years due to us adopting VMware!

You can start from try introduction:

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/virtual_networking_concepts.pdf

And then study the official documentation:

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vs_pages/vsp_pubs_esx40_u1_vc40_u1.html

Andre