ESXi

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  • 1.  How many Vmkernal Port groups required.

    Posted May 20, 2013 08:34 PM

    I have 10 ESX ( i ) 5.1 hosts. Each one connect to two FCOE 10 GB Uplinks using a vDS switch. Main storage for the servers are coming from FC SAN.

    Here is what I'm looking for

    I need to provision a NFS datastore ( only one) for storing ISO files. I do not want to create a seperate vmkernal port for NFS traffic. Can I share the same VMkernal port that is used for Host Management.

    Are there any issues doing so? Will there be any perfromance concerns? I have a 10 GB Uplink and this Vmkernal port is used for Host management and for accessing the one and only NFS datastore that holds ISO files ( No VM's in this datastore).

    We have a seperate vmkernal port for Vmotion.

    By having one vmkernal port for NFS and Host management, I can save one IP address per server. SO for 400 servers, the saving is big.

    again, my question is can I use the same Management Interface Vmkernal port for NFS as well? will there be any perfronace or any other concerns?

    Please advice.



  • 2.  RE: How many Vmkernal Port groups required.

    Posted May 20, 2013 09:33 PM

    Cheride wrote:

    By having one vmkernal port for NFS and Host management, I can save one IP address per server. SO for 400 servers, the saving is big.

    again, my question is can I use the same Management Interface Vmkernal port for NFS as well? will there be any perfronace or any other concerns?

    You wrote earlier that you had 10 ESXi hosts, and then later 400 servers - are the later the virtual machines? If VMs, then you do not need vmkernel NFS for them.

    In general it should be no problem sharing the same vmkernel port for both management and some NFS iso traffic. The only thing might be if you later do decide at some point to use NFS for storing virtual machines you will have to do more work then.



  • 3.  RE: How many Vmkernal Port groups required.

    Posted May 21, 2013 01:09 PM

    No….We are in the process of migrating everything to ESX I 5.1 and this cluster ( the first cluster ) has 10 hosts. We have many more to get upgraded. The 400 I mentioned was the real number of Hosts

    That will be upgraded as well as getting the new 10 GB FcOE uplinks.

    Again, my question is can I use the same Management Interface Vmkernal port for NFS as well? will there be any performance or any other concerns?

    There is absolutely no plans to keep VM’s in NFS datastores. We are a pure Fiber Channel Storage shop. Here the question is will there be any issues in using Management Interface and one NFS datastore which ONLY contains few ISO files.

    Thanks



  • 4.  RE: How many Vmkernal Port groups required.

    Posted May 21, 2013 01:12 PM

    I can not see that would be any issues sharing Management traffic and some NFS iso images through the same 10 Gbit adapter.