vMotion IP address

[Dore Moree]

I have recently started working with a new infrastructure. The setup includes 5 ESXi 8.0 Update 3 hosts and 1 vCenter 8.0 Update 3. Additionally, the ESXi hosts are configured within a vSphere Cluster. I have some questions regarding the vMotion network. During my checks, I noticed that the management IP addresses of the ESXi hosts appear to be the same as the IP addresses configured for the vMotion network, but I'm not entirely sure. How can I verify this? Where can I see the IP addresses being used for vMotion? I wasn't able to find this information during my checks. If there is indeed a conflict, is it possible to manually assign an IP address for vMotion?

I have also uploaded some images of the infrastructure. Could you please review them and let me know if the configuration is correct or if there are any issues? Your insights and guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[Francesco Grimaldi]

Hi Dore, 

In your case, the MGMT and vMotion traffic are passing through the same vmkernel port and sharing the same IP. If you want to separate the traffic, you need to create two different vmkernel ports, each using separate uplinks. Alternatively, you can use the same uplinks but configure VLANs. Essentially, each vmkernel port must be assigned to a different subnet, which can also correspond to a separate VLAN.

When configuring a vmk, make sure to enable only the service you need. If you look at your first screenshot, you'll notice that vmk0 has multiple services enabled, including vMotion and Management, which means that currently, this traffic is using the same vmk and sharing the same IP.

I hope this explanation is clear.

[Jack ezra]

To verify the IP addresses used for vMotion, check the VMkernel adapters on each ESXi host via the vSphere Client. Navigate to Host > Configure > Networking > VMkernel adapters and look for the "vMotion" enabled adapters. Ensure they don't share the same IP as the management network. If needed, you can manually assign a dedicated IP to vMotion by editing the VMkernel adapter settings.