Network topology

[Jankes]

Hello everyone,

i'm new at Vmware and i got some question.

Got my ESXi set with 2 networks card.

I'm a network guy i would like to use Vmware vsphere to try some lab topologies with devices like Loadbalancers or WAN  optimalizers.

Let me show you a diagram of what im trying to accomplish:

- VMs (.1 .2 .3) working as end servers (file, http or whatever) are already set.

- I know how to setup VM to work as simple router.

- VM working as loadbalancer/WAN optimalizer - that is also not a problem

But my mian question is:

In virtual enviroment all these devices are connected to vswitch (server, loadbalancer, router) in kind of hub and spoke topology.

If my servers got default gateway set to router local IP address(172.16.1.254) they will just bypass VM working as Loadbalancer. (switch will just redirect them to router)

In physical network this is solved by placing loadbalancer/WAN optimalizer between switch and router. In that case  - servers to reach router need to go through it. (there is no other way)

How i can accomplish that in vsphere?

- I know that i can set DG of my server to Loadbalancer .100 but this is not how it suppose to be work, loadbalncer shouldnt re-route traffic.

Thank you very muych for any suggestions

[chriswahl]

Assuming that your load balancing solution is a single VM, I suppose you'd be limited to a single ESXi host where there are two port groups created. One connects the VMs to the LB, while the other connects the LB to the physical network. Outside of that, you'd have to use a VMware partner solution that supports deploying "edge" devices (small VMs) on each host to capture the data.

[VM] --> Inside PG (without vmnics) --> [LB] --> LB switches traffic --> Outside PG --> vmnics (to physical network)

This obviously will not scale past a single ESXi host with the limitation of a single load balancing VM.

Alternatively, although you state a desire to avoid this, using a set of unique Inside and Outside subnets where the workloads are using the LB as a gateway would be an option.