configure network esxi 4 and esxi 5.5 to be the same

[ole-]

Hi,

We have a customer with the following network configuration (see image). They are running ESXi and vCenter 4.0.

We have added a seperate new system with ESXi and vCenter 5.5 and want to configure the network the same.

My questions is this service console, i cant seem to be able to configure that, is that not part of ESXi 5.5 ?

If you see the other image I have configured 2 VMkernel ports, one for management and one for vMotion, they will be on the same network.

Would this be correct ?

Dont mind the nics are not connected yet... and another thing should i use active active on alle 4 nics ?

Old configuration

New configuration

[rcporto · Accepted solution]

Starting with vSphere version 5, there is no more Service Console... the the management can be accomplished through a VMkernel port with Management Traffic enabled.

About the vmnics design, my recommendation is:

vSwitch0:

PortGroup for vMotion - vmnic0 Active and vmnic3 Standby

PortGroup for Management - vmnic3 Active and vmnic0 Standby

vSwitch1:

PortGroup for VMs - vmnic1 Active and vmnic2 Active

[ole-]

Thanks for good explanation.

So both the vMotion and Management port groups must be Kernel Ports right ?

On the port group for vMotion, should I only check for vMotion and not Management Traffic ? and on the Management port group i only check for Management traffic ?

Since we are trunking 2 ports together on the physical cisco switch, what do we need to configure on the vSwitch. Do I go to properties of the vswitch, select NIC Teaming and select Route based on IP hash? or does it depend on what we configure on the physical Cisco switch. The Cisco guys have said that they are going to trunk 2 and 2 ports....

Networking is not my strongest area

[rcporto]

So both the vMotion and Management port groups must be Kernel Ports right ?

Yes, each VMKernel on differtn PortGroup, and if possible in a different VLAN too.

On the port group for vMotion, should I only check for vMotion and not Management Traffic ? and on the Management port group i only check for Management traffic ?

Yes, you're correct, but remember that you will make the select the option on VMkernel port, not on PortGroup.

Since we are trunking 2 ports together on the physical cisco switch, what do we need to configure on the vSwitch. Do I go to properties of the vswitch, select NIC Teaming and select Route based on IP hash? or does it depend on what we configure on the physical Cisco switch. The Cisco guys have said that they are going to trunk 2 and 2 ports....

If on the physical switch side the networks guys made a Etherchannel (link aggredation) you will need select the Route Based on IP Hash... but you need confirm what the Cisco guys wants say when the say that configured "trunk", because on Cisco world, a trunk is not link aggregation... a trunk in Cisco world is a interface that will allow traffic from multiple VLAN on same time using tagging.

[ole-]

Ahh, I see. Things clear up here

Just one more question if you could assist with that since you know what you are talking about

We have a customer that today has esxi4 and vcenter 4.

They have configured a new vmware system beside this one, with esxi5.5 and vcenter 5.5

They are going to make the old SAN (FC) available in the new vcenter. But how should we migrate the vms.

Could we just add one of the old esxi4 to the new vcenter 5.5 without interrupt any vms, and migrate them over to 5.5?

Or should we clone these vms? (some are Domain controllers)

Feel free to come with suggestions