Tag Archives: vnetworking

Nutanix Tech Notes for VMware vSphere

Posted on by
7

I thought I would put together a single page which has links to all the current Nutanix Tech Notes relating to VMware vSphere as well as have a bit of a teaser list of upcoming documents.

This will be a living post, and updated regularly as new documents are released.

Tech Notes

1. Nutanix Storage Configuration for VMware vSphere

2. VMware vSphere Networking on Nutanix

3. VMware High Availability Configuration for Nutanix (Coming soon)

4. VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler on Nutanix (Coming soon)

5. VMware Storage configuration on Nutanix (Coming soon)

6. VMware vSphere Cluster design with Nutanix (Coming soon)

7. Optimal Virtual Machine design with Nutanix (Coming soon)

8. Monster VM design with Nutanix (Coming soon)

Example VMware vNetworking Design w/ 2 x 10GB NICs (IP based or FC/FCoE Storage)

Posted on by
19

I have had a large response to my earlier example vNetworking design with 4 x 10GB NICs, and I have been asked, “What if I only have 2 x 10GB NICs”, so the below is an example of an environment which was limited to just two (2) x 10GB NICs and used IP Storage.

If your environment uses FC/FCoE storage, the below still applies and the IP storage components can simply be ignored.

Requirements

1. Provide high performance and redundant access to the IP Storage (if required)
2. Ensure ESXi hosts could be evacuated in a timely manner for maintenance
3. Prevent significant impact to storage performance by vMotion / Fault Tolerance and Virtual machines traffic
4. Ensure high availability for all network traffic

Constraints

1. Two (2) x 10GB NICs

Solution

Use one dvSwitch to support all VMKernel and virtual machine network traffic and use “Route based of Physical NIC Load” (commonly refereed to as “Load Based teaming”).

Use Network I/O control to ensure in the event of contention that all traffic get appropriate network resources.

Configure the following Network Share Values

IP Storage traffic : 100
ESXi Management: 25
vMotion: 25
Fault Tolerance : 25
Virtual Machine traffic : 50

Configure two (2) VMKernel’s for IP Storage and set each on a different VLAN and Subnet.

Configure VMKernels for vMotion (or Multi-NIC vMotion), ESXi Management and Fault Tolerance and set to active on both 10GB interfaces (default configuration).

All dvPortGroups for Virtual machine traffic (in this example VLANs 6 through 8) will be active on both interfaces.

The above utilizes LBT to load balance network traffic which will dynamically move workload between the two 10GB NICs once one or both network adapters reach >=75% utilization.

vNetworking BLOG 2x10gb

Conclusion

Even when your ESXi hosts only have two x 10Gb interfaces, VMware provides enterprise grade features to ensure all traffic (including IP Storage) can get access to sufficient bandwidth to continue serving production workloads until the contention subsides.

This design ensures that in the event a host needs to be evacuated, even during production hours, that it will complete in the fastest possible time with minimal or no impact to production. The faster your vMotion activity completes, the sooner DRS can get your cluster running as smoothly as possible, and in the event you are patching, the sooner your maintenance can be completed and the hosts being patched are returned to the cluster to serve your VMs.

Related Posts

1. Example Architectural Decision – Network I/O Control for ESXi Host using IP Storage (4 x 10 GB NICs)
2. Network I/O Control Shares/Limits for ESXi Host using IP Storage

Example VMware vNetworking Design for IP Storage

Posted on by
1

On a regular basis, I am being asked how to configure vNetworking to support environments using IP Storage (NFS / iSCSI).

The short answer is, as always, it depends on your requirements, but the below is an example of a solution I designed in the past.

Requirements

1. Provide high performance and redundant access to the IP Storage (in this case it was NFS)
2. Ensure ESXi hosts could be evacuated in a timely manner for maintenance
3. Prevent significant impact to storage performance by vMotion / Fault Tolerance and Virtual machines traffic
4. Ensure high availability for ESXi Management / VMKernel and Virtual Machine network traffic

Constraints

1. Four (4) x 10GB NICs
2. Six (6) x 1Gb NICs (Two onboard NICs and a quad port NIC)

Note: So in my opinion the above NICs are hardly “constraining” but still important to mention.

Solution

Use a standard vSwitch (vSwitch0) for ESXi Management VMKernel. Configure vmNIC0 (Onboard NIC 1) and vmNIC2 (Quad Port NIC – port 1)

ESXi Management will be Active on vmNIC0 and vmNIC2 although it will only use one path at any given time.

Use a Distributed Virtual Switch (dvSwitch-admin) for IP Storage , vMotion and Fault Tolerance.

Configure vmNIC6 (10Gb Virtual Fabric Adapter NIC 1 Port 1) and vmNIC9 (10Gb Virtual Fabric Adapter NIC 2 Port 2)

Configure Network I/O with NFS traffic having a share value of 100 and vMotion & FT will each have share value of 25

Each VMKernel for NFS will be active on one NIC and standby on the other.

vMotion will be Active on vmNIC6 and Standby on vmNIC9 and Fault Tolerance vice versa.

vNetworking Example dvSwitch-Admin

Use a Distributed Virtual Switch (dvSwitch-data) for Virtual Machine traffic

Configure vmNIC7 (10Gb Virtual Fabric Adapter NIC 1 Port 2) and vmNIC8 (10Gb Virtual Fabric Adapter NIC 2 Port 1)

Conclusion

While there are many ways to configure vNetworking, and there may be more efficient ways to achieve the requirements set out in this example, I believe the above configuration achieves all the customer requirements.

For example, it provides high performance and redundant access to the IP Storage by using two (2)  VMKernel’s each active on one 10Gb NIC.

IP storage will not be significantly impacted during periods of contention as Network I/O control will ensure in the event of contention that the IP Storage traffic has ~66% of the available bandwidth.

ESXi hosts will be able to be evacuated in a timely manner for maintenance as

1. vMotion is active on a 10Gb NIC, thus supporting the maximum 8 concurrent vMotion’s
2. In the event of contention, worst case scenario vMotion will receive just short of 2GB of bandwidth. (~1750Mb/sec)

High availability is ensured as each vSwitch and dvSwitch has two (2) connections from physically different NICs and connect to physically separate switches.

Hopefully you have found this example helpful and for a example Architectural Decision see Example Architectural Decision – Network I/O Control for ESXi Host using IP Storage