SC and VMotion Redundancy with 2 or 3 Nics

[LeeVM7]

Good morning all.  I have a NIC config that I was hoping to get some feedback on.  I have a host with 12 total NICs.   After budgeting NICs for iSCSI and VM Traffic, I have 3 nics available to make service console and vmotion redundant.

Currently I have vSwitch0 that has 2 physical Nics (Nic0 and Nic10).  Management Console Port group is using Nic0 as active and Nic10 as standby.  VMotion is using Nic10 as active and Nic0 as standby.  The idea is that they will work on their own NICs full time unless there is a problem, then fail over to the other Nic.

Both port groups have the following settings enabled.

Load Balance: Virtual Port ID

Failover Detection: Link Status Only

Notify Swtiches: Yes

Failback: Yes

For the 2^nd Management console I have vSwtich1 using the 3^rd Nic (Nic9).  The idea is that this will only be used in an extreme circumstatnce that something happens to the other SC config or ports.

I definitley welcome any opinions on how to better utilize these 3 NICs (or just stick with 2) for management purposes.  Thanks.

[kjb007]

I stick with the 2 NIC scenario.  Personally, if you have these 2 NICs spread out over two separate switches, then the 2nd service console/management, in my oppinion does not serve much purpose, unless it's being backed by a 3rd NIC over a 3rd physical switch.  If that's the case, you can add a 3rd NIC and protect against that with the same portgroup using standard practice with the same 1 vSwitch.

-KjB

[HeathReynolds]

You could put all three NICs on the same vswitch and have vMotion active on two, and your management on one (as long as you are using ESX 5). More bandwidth for vMotion is never a bad thing. I am averaging 114MB per second with 1 NIC, and 221 with two NICs.

Duncan Epping has a good blog on multi nic vmotion :

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2011/09/17/multiple-nic-vmotion-in-vsphere-5/

[LeeVM7]

kjb007,

That makes sense. Might end up using that 3rd Nic for another purpose.  Thanks for your help.

[LeeVM7]

HR,

Thanks for the links.  With your suggestion, I wouldn't lose the SC redundancy?  Basically if SC Nic fails, it hops to one of the 2 standby Nics that would be similiar to how the 2 nic setup is now?  The real difference is how the 2 VMotion Nics are setup (per your links).  Am I understanding that correctly?

[chriswahl]

If you go the 2 NIC for vMotion route, make sure to create 2 vmkernels and enable vMotion for both. As stated above, dual NIC vMotion only works on vSphere 5.

[HeathReynolds]

Right, you would have three VMKernel interfaces on the vSwitch, and three NICs.

MGMT VMK - NIC0 Active, NIC9 and NIC10 standby

VMotion A VMK - NIC9 Active, NIC0 and NIC10 standby

VMotion B VMK - NIC10 ACtive, NIC0 and NIC9 standby

NIC0 goes to switch A, NIC9 and NIC10 go to switch B. All three VMK interfaces woudl be redundant to an upstream switch failuer as long as you are allowing the proper VLANs on all three interfaces on teh upstream switch.

[LeeVM7]

Thanks for the clarification.  I am going to look into going this route and runs some tests with having that 2nd vmotion NIC.

[logiboy123]

Check out my blog on vSphere host networking if you are looking for diagrams and design information. Specifically there is a 12 NIC host design you could look at.

http://vrif.blogspot.com/

If you have specific requirements feel free to get in contact with me and I'll see if I can build something for you.

Regards,

Paul