Using VMotion with 2 ESX and VCenter

[alelievre]

Hi all,

I just installed VSphere with 2 ESX and & VCenter. I cannot use VMotion to migrate a running VM from an ESX to the other.

My configuration is as following:

iSCSI software initiator.

same datastore shared by the 2 hosts.

same network conf on the 2 hosts, no vlan used (set at 0):

• vSwitch0 for Service console, connected to compagny network (vmnik0)

• vSwitch1 for Virtual machine network (connected to compagny network vmnic1) and VMkernel (for vmotion, connected to production nework: san, vmnic2) .

Error displaye (at 10%): a general system error occurred: The VMotion failed because ESX hosts were not able to connect over VMotion network, Please check your VMotion network settings and physical network configuration.

vmnic2 on ESX1 is configured 192.168.130.X with 255.255.0.0 mask and connected to eth0 on iSCSI SAN

vmnic2 on ESX2 is configured 192.168.131.X with 255.255.0.0 mask and connected to eth1 on iSCSI SAN

Thanks for help

[golddiggie · Accepted solution]

vmnic2 on ESX1 is configured 192.168.130.X with 255.255.0.0 mask and connected to eth0 on iSCSI SAN

vmnic2 on ESX2 is configured 192.168.131.X with 255.255.0.0 mask and connected to eth1 on iSCSI SAN

That's two different VLAN's connecting to the iSCSI SAN. You should have the same subnet, but (possibly) different IP addresses connecting to the SAN from each host (depends on the SAN)... Such as 192.168.130.25 for ESX1 and 192.168.130.30 for ESX2. Unless your SAN actually spans two subnets on your LAN, you're creating an issue where you don't need to. I would also use separate NIC's for the vMotion traffic and another for iSCSI. Keep them separated from the VM traffic too (makes everything cleaner and less chance of collisions and too much load from one causing performance issues for the other. This is why it's a good idea to have at least four, if not six, physical NIC's (or ports) inside an ESX/ESXi host server.

VMware VCP4

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