watching storage NFS since FC storage, have network config question

I have a lot of hosts running ESX3.5 U3. 4 network cards each have... 1 SC, 2 for VM, 1 for SC2 and VMotion. My question is when I go to use storage NFS I should use the vswitch which has the port of VKernel configured on it, correct? and I can only have a VKernel port on a host, correct? If those who are both good while I have my storage VMotion traffic and NFS on the same vswitch (NIC), correct? for my tests, I added a quad-port nic to a couple of hosts and predicted the addition of these NICs to the existing vswitch SC2/VMotion.

current:

vmnic0 = SC (vswitch0)

vmnic1 = VM (vswitch1)

vmnic2 = VM (vswitch1)

No nic (vswitch2) network

vmnic3 = VMotion/SC2/NFS (vswitch3)

Futures:

vmnic0 = SC (vswitch0)

vmnic1 = VM (vswitch1)

vmnic2 = VM (vswitch1)

No nic (vswitch2) network

vmnic3 = unassigned or add to VM vswitch network

vmnic4 = VMotion/SC2/NFS (vswitch3)

vmnic5 = VMotion/SC2/NFS (vswitch3)

vmnic6 = unassigned or add to vswitch3

vmnic7 = unassigned or add to vswitch3

control at will!

You can have multiple vmkernel ports, but not on the same subnet.  If you segment your NFS traffic in a separate network, you can create another vmkernel port to take advantage of this way.

In addition, the only reason to have multiple sc ports is if you didn't trust your configuration VLAN switch.  To provide redundancy, I pair a 2nd NETWORK card with the first port of sc and get the hardware redundancy rather than adding complexity with a 2nd service console IP.  Then use a 2nd pair for vmotion, a 3rd pair for the vm traffic and a 4th pair for NFS.  That would give you redundancy at each layer, and if you use separate network segments with each type of data, provide you a better level of security as well.

-KjB

Tags: VMware

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