Add NFS traffic to existing setup

[virtualizingtheworld]

Hi,

Have a requirement to add NFS connectivity and need to select which uplinks I need to use for this traffic.

I think that the options I have is either to use the uplinks used by the VM traffic or the ones used by vSAN (both pairs at 10Gbps)

The good think is that there is no HCL for NFS for the network adapters so I can choose any of the current ones that already follow VCG.

Would you have any recommendation as to which uplinks to use. Both are using Distributed Switches so that is an advantage as I can always enable NIOC to prioritize VM traffic or vSAN traffic such as setting to 100 (leaving NFS at 50)

None of the above uplinks looks to be heavily used, once I select the uplinks I should be able proceed and add an additional vmkernel on each Host in a dedicated VLAN/Portgroup on the respective Distributed Switch. From there on it should use the existing uplink redundancy already in place.

Let me know your thoughts please.

Thanks

[daphnissov]

Any time you use an IP network for storage connectivity, I always recommend using dedicated links. This goes for vSAN as well as external storage over NFS/iSCSI.

[virtualizingtheworld]

Hi  

Yes agree dedicated links always best, think in this scenario the usage will be low hence might not require 2x new additional dedicated NIC and links per host. 

Actually the NFS shares needs to be mounted on the VM (or from few VM's) directly so assume ESXi's will not require adding a vmkernel to each Host (for NFS use)

 

Would it still require a dedicated network/vlan for NFS traffic and an additional vnic on the VM that want to mount the NFS share?

 

Thanks