Best practices... How many cards?

Hey guys,.

We are currently adding 2 new hosts (HP BL460c G8) to our cluster 4 hosts (HP BL460c G7).  Guests have the following configurations:

-12 cores (2 x Intel Xeon 6 cores)

-192 GB memory (G8 have 256 GB)

-NIC 6 (2 + 4 with mezzanine)

-2 x 146 GB mirror for OS

-2 FC HBA

I just upgraded vCenter and vSphere Update Manager to the latest version (5.1 U1).  We performed an average of 40 to 60 machines virtual host and never had a problem... CPU is always about 15 to 20 percent and memory around 50-60%.  Exchange and SQL are on physical servers.

We use 4 NICs for VM traffic (4 Active VM (with 3 network interface cards) + 2 Exchange trade VMkernel (1 + 1 standby active network card) and 2 NICs for V-Motion and FT.)

Recently asked me to see if we could remove 2 switches (Cisco 3020) between the speaker and have a viable environment with only 4 network cards.  The network guys tell me that traffic is really not so bad on 3020 s... We have occasional peaks but average traffic of the past year is generally quite low.  It comes with switches and nic 1 GB.

I was thinking about the following config if we go up to 4 network cards:

-2 active network for VM traffic maps (ideally an edge / one on the mezzanine)

-1 map of active network for vMotion / Mgt of traffic with the other network adapter (used for FT) in standby mode

-1 map of active network for FT / Mgt of traffic with the other network adapter (used for vMotion) in standby mode

Am I missing something?  To be honest... I prefer to keep the 6 switches/NIC, thinking we're going to have traffic for her in the future but the management here wants to know if it is feasible with only 4 at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

So, you have certain requirements with forced here. The questions are to make us think, not necessarily to have a definitive answer.

Management asked if a NIC (4) configuration is possible. So, let's look at the types of traffic, assuming that the redundancy is a requirement.

Types of required traffic:

  • MGMT (VMkernel)
  • vMotion (VMkernel)
  • VM (Virtual Machine) - y (2) NICs required for bandwidth? If so, you might consider that NIC (3) will be necessary for redundant N + 1 on a NIC level. 10GbE starts to make a lot of sense in this scenario.

Types of traffic in option:

  • Based on your statement in this thread, FT is not used yet. What is a bond? If this isn't the case, I'd take it off the table for this decision as long as the decision to use FT affects more than the NIC number. It affects the master VM, use of resources, backup schedule, etc.

From the little information listed here, I agree with the proposed plan of NIC if 4 cards network is possible based on the investigation. (Of course many NICs gives more flexibility. 10GbE gives you more options.)

VMNIC numbers here are just placeholders.

  • MGMT (active VMNIC0 / VMNIC1 sleep)
  • vMotion (active VMNIC1 / VMNIC0 sleep)
  • VM (VMNIC2 Active / Active VMNIC3)

In addition, you had (4) hosts and you add (2). Your cluster increased only 50%. How many times do you get? Expect more work load in the next 6 to 12 months? I would say that you can certainly make the arguments for Enterprise more than license for a switching distributed alone, without forgetting the other features that you will receive.

I hope this helps.

Don't forget to mark this "correct" answer or 'useful', if you found it useful (you'll also points).

Kind regards

Harley stagnate

VCP3/4, VCAP-DCD4/5, VCDX3/4/5

Website: http://www.harleystagner.com

Twitter: hstagner

Tags: VMware

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