<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:taxo="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/taxonomy/" version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>topic Help! Redundant Switches - To Stack or Not? in vSphere™ vNetwork Discussions</title>
    <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862984#M9235</link>
    <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;We would like any advice on "best practices" for how to setup redundant physical switches that connect our ESXi host(s) to a NFS NAS via 10GbE.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Please see the two attached diagrams.&amp;nbsp; We cannot decide between stacking the switches or leaving them unstacked and separate (and using NFS multipathing).&amp;nbsp; I wanted to make sure either scenario was feasible.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;STACKED&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;The primary downside I see to stacking the switches is that &lt;STRONG&gt;we wouldn't be able to do firmware updates without taking the entire cluster offline&lt;/STRONG&gt;, because both switches in the stack would reboot at the same time.&amp;nbsp; Firmware updates are rare, but I want to be able to do them without shutting every VM down.&amp;nbsp; This is a significant disadvantage of stacking to me and I would like to avoid stacking if only for this reason.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;In a stacked scenario, we would most likely employ LACP on the NAS for redundant links to the switch stack, although I suppose we could still try multipathing with two NAS IPs.&amp;nbsp; I understand that I would probably use IP hash if we setup LACP instead of the default NIC teaming.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;UNSTACKED&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;I believe we would have to use multipathing if we do NOT stack the switches and want to keep a single VMK.&amp;nbsp; I don't know which option I would want for the vmnic teaming in this scenario. &lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;My understanding is that round-robin is used with multipathing, so vmnic1 and vmnic2 would choose &lt;STRONG&gt;either&lt;/STRONG&gt; of the two NAS's IPs automatically.&amp;nbsp; This is why the switches would need a link between them, so that either vmnic could connect to either NAS IP through either of the switches.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;This setup would let us reboot either switch without taking down the entire cluster.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Can anyone offer any insight into either STACKED or UNSTACKED design, or using NFS Multipathing in general?&amp;nbsp; Am I overlooking anything important, or should either of these scenarios work?&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;PS: I think both of these models cover if either switch were to have an actual outage.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
    <pubDate>Mon, 16 Dec 2019 21:43:53 GMT</pubDate>
    <dc:creator>jondehen</dc:creator>
    <dc:date>2019-12-16T21:43:53Z</dc:date>
    <item>
      <title>Help! Redundant Switches - To Stack or Not?</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862984#M9235</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;We would like any advice on "best practices" for how to setup redundant physical switches that connect our ESXi host(s) to a NFS NAS via 10GbE.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Please see the two attached diagrams.&amp;nbsp; We cannot decide between stacking the switches or leaving them unstacked and separate (and using NFS multipathing).&amp;nbsp; I wanted to make sure either scenario was feasible.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;STACKED&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;The primary downside I see to stacking the switches is that &lt;STRONG&gt;we wouldn't be able to do firmware updates without taking the entire cluster offline&lt;/STRONG&gt;, because both switches in the stack would reboot at the same time.&amp;nbsp; Firmware updates are rare, but I want to be able to do them without shutting every VM down.&amp;nbsp; This is a significant disadvantage of stacking to me and I would like to avoid stacking if only for this reason.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;In a stacked scenario, we would most likely employ LACP on the NAS for redundant links to the switch stack, although I suppose we could still try multipathing with two NAS IPs.&amp;nbsp; I understand that I would probably use IP hash if we setup LACP instead of the default NIC teaming.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;UNSTACKED&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;I believe we would have to use multipathing if we do NOT stack the switches and want to keep a single VMK.&amp;nbsp; I don't know which option I would want for the vmnic teaming in this scenario. &lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;My understanding is that round-robin is used with multipathing, so vmnic1 and vmnic2 would choose &lt;STRONG&gt;either&lt;/STRONG&gt; of the two NAS's IPs automatically.&amp;nbsp; This is why the switches would need a link between them, so that either vmnic could connect to either NAS IP through either of the switches.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;This setup would let us reboot either switch without taking down the entire cluster.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Can anyone offer any insight into either STACKED or UNSTACKED design, or using NFS Multipathing in general?&amp;nbsp; Am I overlooking anything important, or should either of these scenarios work?&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;PS: I think both of these models cover if either switch were to have an actual outage.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 16 Dec 2019 21:43:53 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862984#M9235</guid>
      <dc:creator>jondehen</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2019-12-16T21:43:53Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Help! Redundant Switches - To Stack or Not?</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862985#M9236</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;One quick question. Does your NAS system support Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB)?&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;André&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 16 Dec 2019 21:53:25 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862985#M9236</guid>
      <dc:creator>a_p_</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2019-12-16T21:53:25Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Help! Redundant Switches - To Stack or Not?</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862986#M9237</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;Actually, it does support ALB.&amp;nbsp; It also supports LACP, balance XOR, or Active/Standby.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 16 Dec 2019 21:56:19 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862986#M9237</guid>
      <dc:creator>jondehen</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2019-12-16T21:56:19Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Help! Redundant Switches - To Stack or Not?</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862987#M9238</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;In this case I'd go with ALB, which doesn't require stacking, or channeling for utilizing both NICs/paths.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Standard vSwitches btw. support LACP only in static mode, so you would probably not get the expected result anyway.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;André&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 16 Dec 2019 22:03:30 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862987#M9238</guid>
      <dc:creator>a_p_</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2019-12-16T22:03:30Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Help! Redundant Switches - To Stack or Not?</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862988#M9239</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;Andr&lt;SPAN style="color: #666666; font-family: proxima-nova, Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;é, thank you, I wasn't even aware that ALB existed on my NAS.&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;SPAN style="color: #666666; font-family: proxima-nova, Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Question:&lt;/STRONG&gt; So would the attached topology work then, using two separate switches, one for each of the NAS connections?&amp;nbsp; If so, I think I would like to use ALB on the NAS instead of NFS multipathing from the ESXi host.&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;SPAN style="color: #666666; font-family: proxima-nova, Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;I would assume vmnic1 and vmnic2 would remain setup with the default "Route based on originating virtual port" but I'll have to do more research on this.&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;SPAN style="color: #666666; font-family: proxima-nova, Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;Thanks!&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 17 Dec 2019 15:29:01 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862988#M9239</guid>
      <dc:creator>jondehen</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2019-12-17T15:29:01Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: Help! Redundant Switches - To Stack or Not?</title>
      <link>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862989#M9240</link>
      <description>&lt;HTML&gt;&lt;HEAD&gt;&lt;/HEAD&gt;&lt;BODY&gt;&lt;P&gt;The nice part about ALB is that it works switch independent, i.e. no special configuration is needed on the physical switch side.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;However, so far I've often used this for iSCSI (block) traffic with RR multipathing, but never for NFS traffic so far.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;BR /&gt;André&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BODY&gt;&lt;/HTML&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 17 Dec 2019 17:45:20 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Discussions/Help-Redundant-Switches-To-Stack-or-Not/m-p/1862989#M9240</guid>
      <dc:creator>a_p_</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2019-12-17T17:45:20Z</dc:date>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

