vsphere network design - 6 nics - 6 switches

[gdavid]

We have a HP C7000 enclosure.

Each blade has 6 NICs. (Bay 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 😎

Each NIC is going to a Cisco 3020 switch in each of those bays.(for simplicity i will refer to the Cisco switches and NICs as 1 -6, instead of by the bay number)

This is a new implementation so I can pretty much change anything I want as of right now.

I have a MSA2312i with 4 ports

A1-10.1.3.40 /24

A2-10.1.3.41 /24

B1-10.1.4.40 /24

B2-10.1.4.41 /24

The setup as i have it right now.

vSwitch0 - VM Machines VLAN1 - pNIC3 & pNIC4

vSwitch0 - VM Machines VLAN2 - pNIC3 & pNIC4

vSwitch0 - Service Console - pNIC3 & pNIC4

vSwitch1 - iSCSI (10.1.3.x / 24) - pNIC1

vSwitch2 - iSCSI (10.1.4.x / 24) - pNIC2

vSwitch3 - vMotion (10.2.1.x /24) - pNIC5 & pNIC6

Questions

1. I noticed that the vmkernal has 1 default gateway do i need to expand my subnet mask for iSCSI and vMotion to have 1 gateway?

2. I noticed that some of the network adapters "Networks" are reporting the wrong IP range, is this a problem? FYI - i moved some stuff around and this is probably the cause for why this happened.

3.. Should the iSCSI be under 1 vSwitch with 2 port groups? (its working as of now and MPIO sees all the proper paths)

4. We are trunking the pNic3 & pNIC4 so i can specify the VLANs on the portgroup, i've seen recommendations that this should be set to "route based on the originating virtual port ID". If we etherchannel a few ports from pSwitch3 and pSwitch4 back to our distribution switches, should this be changed to "route based on IP hash"

5. We have 2 distribution switches, what is the best way to connect the 6 3020 switches back to them?

6. Any better ideas?

Thanks for any help.

-GD

[AntonVZhbankov]

I noticed that the vmkernal has 1 default gateway do i need to expand my subnet mask for iSCSI and vMotion to have 1 gateway?

No. When you're communicationg with someone on your subnet gateway is not used.

>2. I noticed that some of the network adapters "Networks" are reporting the wrong IP range, is this a problem? FYI - i moved some stuff around and this is probably the cause for why this happened.

That means nothig actually, just for info purposes.

>3.. Should the iSCSI be under 1 vSwitch with 2 port groups? (its working as of now and MPIO sees all the proper paths)

It would be better to place all iSCSI storage in one VLAN, instead of several.

>We have 2 distribution switches, what is the best way to connect the 6 3020 switches back to them?

At least one NIC from each 3020 to provide redundancy.

---

MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[AndreTheGiant]

If we etherchannel a few ports from pSwitch3 and pSwitch4 back to our distribution switches, should this be changed to "route based on IP hash"

Yes

Any better ideas?

Remember to enable Jumbo Frame.

I do not see a FT interface, if you plan to use this function you can create vSwitch3 and set configure VMotion and FT interface to work by default on different NIC.

Andre