vdswitch query best practice

[AllBlack]

Hey guys,

I am having a first look at distributed switch and I was wondering if you can fill in the blanks on how I can use it in my setup.

Currently I have two clusters in my datacenter, each have about 5 hosts.

The networking is the same accross all 10 hosts. I have a vSwitch for Service Console, Data, ISCSI, Vmotion and DMZ on each host with most of them having two NIC.

Here comes the questions:

Would I need to create a dvswitch per cluster or per datacenter?

Once the question above is determined I would be creating a dvswitch for each of the vswitches I have now. So I would have one dvswitch

for Service Console, Data, ISCSI, Vmotion and DMZ each or am I completely wrong?

Assuming the answer is that I have dvswitch for each of the networks mentioned above, my (for example) Data dvSwitch would have 10 uplink ports? Calculations for this are based on the fact that I currently have 5 hosts in my cluster and they each have two NICs for data.

Assuming I am on the right track, how would I best configure my 10 NICs? All as active?

There is probably a LOT I am overlooking but I am trying to get a better understanding. Any links to good articles would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Please consider marking my answer as "helpful" or "correct"

[jbogardus]

Create the dvswitch for the datacenter. If you have other hosts that will have a slightly different network configuration in the future you can create another dvswitch for the datacenter that you will use for them.

Yes you can create one dvswitch for all the network connection types SC, data, iSCSI, VMotion, ...

You would only have 2 uplinks. For each host you map it's pNICs to the uplinks available. Since each host only has 2 pNICs your vSwitch will only have 2 uplinks. In this way the distributed switch becomes a template for how each individual host attaches.

Then you could create a port group for each type of traffic - SC, Data, iSCSI, VMotion, DMZ, ... For each port group you configure the VLAN configuration it will use and the Uplink configuration. For example you may configure SC and VMotion to use the same Uplink1 as active and the other Uplink2 as standby. The for the Data, DMZ, VMotion port groups configure Uplink2 as active and Uplink1 as standy.

Ideally you would have more ports in each server and define more uplinks. Then on you dvswitch be able to define more separation of traffic. This way you dvswitch and the Uplinks become a template for how the traffic will be separated when the Uplinks are mapped to specific pNICs on each of your hosts.

[jbogardus]

Here's a configuration Technical document for the Distributed Switch:

http://vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere-vnetwork-ds-migration-configuration-wp.pdf

[AllBlack]

Maybe I explained it wrong. I currently have 8 NIC per host.

1 for SC, 2 for ISCSI, 2 for data, 1 for DMZ, 1 for vmotion.

Currently I only use port groups on data and I separate networks with vlans.

Cheers

[jbogardus]

Then create a distributed switch with 8 Uplinks

With a distributed switch all types of connections are made using port groups. SC will connect to a port group, iSCSI VMkernel will connect to a port group, and VMotion VMkernel will connect to a port group.

Create you various port groups:

Service Console

iSCSI

VMotion

DMZ

Data

Then assign Uplinks to server the port groups as desired. Maybe something like:

Service Console - Uplink1 active, Uplink2 standby

VMotion - Uplink2 active, Uplink1 standby

iSCSI - Uplink 3,4,5, assign 6,7,8 standby

Data - Uplink 6,7,8, assign 3,4,5 standby

Then when you add a host to the distributed switch you define which pNICs are associated with the Uplinks. In this case you can choose all 8 pNICs to associate with the 8 Uplinks.

[Texiwill]

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[OsageNDN]

Ok so let me ask this from a physical setup, as this is where I am confused.

I am talking physical connections and vLANs

From my Router to My L2 Switch I have 3 Connections

Management LAN, Client LAN and DMZ

These are assigned port based VLANS on my switches.  I then have my VLANS from there defined as follows:

172.16.0.0/24 Management

172.16.4.0/24 Client

172.16.2.0/24 Storage 1

172.16.3.0/24 Storage 2

When I make the move the vdSwitches do I put all of my ports on my switch in NATIVE VLAN or do I keep my storage network on a seperate VLAN as well?

I have read over most fo the documentation and I am just not sure about the physical connections.

Regards,

Neadom