VM Backups (Synology Active Backup for Business) at 10GbE - Which TCP/IP Stack Is Used?

[jondehen]

This is more of a theoretical question than anything.

We currently have a single vSwitch0 that has three port groups:

1. Management (default TCP/IP stack)
2. vMotion
3. VCSA VM (this is where we run VCSA)

All of the above are on the same VLAN.  We do not have the provisioning TCP/IP stack separated out (so I believe that happens over #1 still).  vSwitch0 has two 1GbE uplink NICs.  Please see the attached image for clarification.

We want to use a Synology NAS as a backup server but would like backups to run over 10GbE instead of only 1GbE.  Assuming we add a new vmnic that is 10GbE to our host, how would we want to configure our vSwitch0 so that backups and restores run at 10GbE?  Should we separate out the vMotion or Provisioning VMK to their own vSwitch and add the 10GbE NIC to either (or both), or does the backup traffic run over the default Management TCP/IP stack even if those two are separated out?

I know the answer might be: "it depends on how the backups function".  I am familiar with what the vMotion and Provisioning TCP/IP stacks are used for ( VMkernel Networking Layer ) but would like to get any comments on this scenario, if possible, especially in regards to Synology's Active Backup for Business VM solution.

Thank you kindly and apologies if I've overlooked anything simple!

[jondehen · Accepted solution]

We have a testing environment.  Today I broke out the vMotion and Provisioning VMKs to their own port groups.  I then assigned each of the Management, vMotion, and Provisioning port groups to their own physical NIC (via port group overrides).  I monitored all three ports for activity and only saw that the management port was used for backups.  Maybe someone will one day find this post helpful.