ESXi

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  • 1.  can i have 2 NICs, each on a diferent network ?

    Posted Dec 27, 2009 10:26 AM

    Happy New Year 2010 for all of you !

    We have a x3850 with 2 NICs. The Op Sys is ESX v 4.0.1

    Can we connect each of the NICs to a diferent network ?

    This is, the first one to have

    IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.12.1.34
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
    Default Gateway . . . . . . : 10.12.1.1

    and the other NIC to have

    IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 77.100.100.4
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . .. . . : 255.255.255.0
    Default Gateway . . . .. . . : 77.100.100.1

    We dont want to interconnect the 2 networks in any way, no.

    No traffic from one net to the other, no

    Just one VM on net-1 and another VM on net-2.

    Any pointer to documentation is very welcome .... Thanks. Sebastian.



  • 2.  RE: can i have 2 NICs, each on a diferent network ?

    Posted Dec 27, 2009 10:44 AM

    Hi

    Yes you can, you will need to put 2 x vSwitches in - with uplinks going each physical NIC (so vSwitch1 uplink to NIC1 and vSwitch2 uplink to NIC2).You will then be able to connect your VM's to the relevant network.

    How are you going to protect your management traffic though? I would suggest if your physical network switches are capable, using VLANs to segregate your public traffic from your management traffic (you will need to add these VLAN's in as port groups on your vSwitches so they can be seen by ESX).

    Hope this helps.

    -


    a CraZy PeNguIn



  • 3.  RE: can i have 2 NICs, each on a diferent network ?

    Posted Dec 27, 2009 11:28 AM

    Thanks, mr Penguin. Hope you still get some ice on Artic next year, or maybe Austral ice is better ...

    a) 2 vSwitches : I think I can do that. Some time ago, I defined 2 vSwitches even we used only one network. Later I saw it was useless.

    b) "to protect your management traffic" - interesting question

    ... "to segregate your public traffic from your management traffic" - interesting situation

    I have read some items in these forums, and it seems to me you are talking about the situation when "data" traffic (or "public" traffic)

    blocks the NIC, so your "remote management traffic" can not get thru, so it does not reach the ESX.

    Am I right ?

    I think we dont have this problem, as we do local management, using the local console.

    Do you agree with me ?

    And I agree my experience is short, as I still have not seen such "blocking" in our installation. We do have problems with the number of MAC's (see my other post in this forum), but not with the volume of data.

    To tell you the truth; i would like to have such a trouble next year, meaning my bussiness goes very very well !

    (:smileyhappy:)



  • 4.  RE: can i have 2 NICs, each on a diferent network ?

    Posted Dec 27, 2009 01:22 PM

    Also remember you do not assign IP addrsses to your physical NICs - you assign them to your virtual machiens, Service Console ports (used to communicate to the Sevrice console for management) and the vmkernel ports (used by the vmkernel for vmotion and communicating to IP based storage NAS/NFS and iSCSI)

    The reason to segrgate the management traffic is to insure that you can remotely manage your ESX hosts with out fear that virtual machines will saturate the management network wither through normal traffic or virus induced traffice preventing access - if you are doing all management through the physical console on your esx server then it might not be an issue - however f you start manageing your environment through the vsphere client or expand enough to use virtual center than this can become an issue -

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  • 5.  RE: can i have 2 NICs, each on a diferent network ?

    Posted Dec 27, 2009 01:53 PM

    Thanks, mr WeinStein ... we shall think on management traffic ... in 2011, jejeje

    But now you have worried me about "vmkernel ports" - what is this ?

    Or better : where can I find some description about all this "communications" infrastructure VMware uses ?

    a) physical NIC

    b) vSwitch

    c) Service Console port

    d) vmkernel port

    e) VM port

    Thanks a lot ! Sebastian.



  • 6.  RE: can i have 2 NICs, each on a diferent network ?

    Posted Dec 27, 2009 04:56 PM

    Check out the network section of http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40_u1/vsp_40_u1_esx_server_config.pdf

    If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful



  • 7.  RE: can i have 2 NICs, each on a diferent network ?

    Posted Dec 27, 2009 05:15 PM

    I shall read it COMPLETE by next weekend.

    Thanks. Sebastian.