4 Replies Latest reply on Jul 18, 2019 1:31 AM by yezdi

vSAN Networking Design - 10GbE Base-T

NhutVu Jul 16, 2019 10:42 PM

Hi all,

Our team currently building a vSAN All Flash Cluster (around 4 nodes) but still in consideration of networking part.

As the requirement for vSAN All Flash network is 10GbE shared or dedicated with low latency of RTT.

So our team is considering to use 10GbE Base-T (copper) NIC as well as Cisco Nexus 93108TC-EX 48 x 100M/1/10GBASE-T ports and 6 x 40/100-Gbps QSFP28 ports as our ToR switches for these 4 nodes (each nodes will have 4x 10GbE copper link to the Switches) to ensure it will compatible with our main 1Gb copper network as well as saving cost.

So i've been wondering if anyone have experienced in using All-Flash vSAN Cluster with 10GbE Base-T Network design?

Thank you all.

1. Re: vSAN Networking Design - 10GbE Base-T

yezdi Jul 17, 2019 1:23 AM (in response to NhutVu)

The requirement is 10GB end-to-end (Between all the hosts in the vSAN cluster) connectivity, that includes Physical NIC, ToR switches etc. If its available then all flash vSAN should be fine. We've multiple all flash vSAN environments with 10Gig network.
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2. Re: vSAN Networking Design - 10GbE Base-T

MikeStoica Jul 17, 2019 2:01 AM (in response to NhutVu)

I'm also running some AF vSAN environments. Definitely go for the 10Gb
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3. Re: vSAN Networking Design - 10GbE Base-T

NhutVu Jul 17, 2019 2:26 AM (in response to yezdi)

Yes, as we also understood that the connection just need to be 10GbE, does not need to be a specific 10GbE like Fiber, DAC or Base-T.

What our team worrying is the latency of network. As the 10Gb BASE-T network latency is usually a little bit higher than 10GbE Fiber or 10GbE DAC connection.
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4. Re: vSAN Networking Design - 10GbE Base-T

yezdi Jul 18, 2019 1:31 AM (in response to NhutVu)

Our all flash vSAN environments are on 10GB Base-T network. I couldn't find best practice articles on vSAN Network design which compares 10GbE Fiber cs 10GbE Base-T. The vSAN network design guide doesnt say to not to use copper. But definitely you can reach out to VMware and ask their recommendation.

https://storagehub.vmware.com/t/vmware-vsan/vmware-r-vsan-tm-network-design/

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