VmWare i3 Nic Teaming Details Question

[Kumatech]

Hello,

I see that enabling nic teaming in vmware esx3.5 (i3 with 3 hosts), is a joke. Each of my hosts has a second nic ready to be used in a team. As far as I can see it seems like there are no issues related to configuring this.

My question is... When I enable nic teaming do I have to make sure my switches enable generic trunking? Is there some kind of walk through for this aspect of the configuration? In other words, do I need to makes sure I have manageable switches so the ports can be configured with the virtual mac address of the team and apply the same uplinking configuration to other switches in the LAN so I am truly using this aggregation in a large switches environment? Am I making this far more complicated that it is in reality? Let me know!

[Texiwill]

Hello,

I see that enabling nic teaming in vmware esx3.5 (i3 with 3 hosts), is a joke. Each of my hosts has a second nic ready to be used in a team. As far as I can see it seems like there are no issues related to configuring this.

Yes it is easy.

My question is... When I enable nic teaming do I have to make sure my switches enable generic trunking? Is there some kind of walk through for this aspect of the configuration? In other words, do I need to makes sure I have manageable switches so the ports can be configured with the virtual mac address of the team and apply the same uplinking configuration to other switches in the LAN so I am truly using this aggregation in a large switches environment? Am I making this far more complicated that it is in reality? Let me know!

Depends on how you have to set things up. If you use VST, then both links to your pSwitches must trunk the same VLANS. So yes you need to fix this. However you are mistaken, you only get load balancing across a NIC Team (if you choose to do this) not aggregation.

However, with only 2 pNICs you may have security issues at hand and may want more pNICs to make your installation more secure.

Check out the VMware Whitepaper on 802.1q (VLANS) for information on trunking, etc.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

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[msemon1]

So let me see if I understand this correctly. Say for example I have 3 Virtual Swtiches each with 2 physical NICS using VST I would have to trunk 1 or three ports per ESX Host?

1. vSwtich 0

1.Service Console VLAN 10

2. VM Network (Backup) VLAN 40

vSwtich 1

1. VMkernal VLAN20

vSwtich2

1. VM network VLAN 30

i know i should have redundant Service Console port but have not got around to implementing.

Mike

[TomHowarth]

So let me see if I understand this correctly. Say for example I have 3 Virtual Swtiches each with 2 physical NICS using VST I would have to trunk 1 or three ports per ESX Host?

1. vSwtich 0

1.Service Console VLAN 10

2. VM Network (Backup) VLAN 40

you would create two port groups on this vSwitch and tag the traffice with 10 and 40 respectively. you would then create a switch trunk on your physical switch that passed 40 and 10. you would configure the vNICs as ServiceConsole VMNIC0 live failover to VMNIC1 and VM Network VMNIC1 live VMNIC0 failover.

vSwtich 1

1. VMkernal VLAN20

You would configue your phyiscal switch ports as a trunk configured to pass VLAN20 and mark your vSwitch with tag 20

vSwtich2

1. VM network VLAN 30

You would configue your phyiscal switch ports as a trunk configured to pass VLAN30 and mark your vSwitch with tag 30

i know i should have redundant Service Console port but have not got around to implementing.

That is correct you will have rudundancy and resilliance on all vSwitches

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Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

Blog: www.planetvm.net

[Kumatech]

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to let you know FYI, I have not abandoned the post, I have been sidetracked with some work and waiting for the client to send their HpProcurve switch credentials. I want to apply what I've read and use the thread to address any further issues once I apptempt to impliment it in the real world. Please be patient I will close up this post at some point in the near future!

Thanks for the info.... Ed... I like the credentials, very impressive!