Virtualization-Network Best practices

The right network configuration is the foundation of the VMware vsphere architecture. To implement a VMware network, IT administrators need to understand the physical interfaces and virtual switches of the vsphere host. Learn how to plan your vsphere virtual network.

The VMware vsphere network begins with the ESXi host that correctly installs the Vsphere network, including the choice of a distributed, standard, virtual, or physical switch. Finally, there are post-configuration and deployment, traffic monitoring of the virtual network.

The first step in configuring a virtual network is to integrate vsphere deployments into existing architectures. You need to really understand the state of an existing schema. For example, if your network is using iSCSI (Internet Small Computer system interface), SAN (storage area Network), or NFS (the "Network File System"), then use FC San Enterprise, vsphere hosts need to configure more network interfaces. In most cases, six NICs are minimal, and many hosts require 10, 12, or more NICs.

vsphere Virtual Network Installation Guide

A management network connected to an ESXi host requires at least one physical network card, but best practices indicate that it is best to configure 2 network adapters for redundancy.

VMware Vmotion can share the management network, but best practices recommend configuring a dedicated vmotion network and ensuring bandwidth above 1Gb. Similar to the management network, a redundant configuration is implemented with two network cards.

If you use the vsphere Fault tolerance (fault tolerance) feature for high availability, you will need an additional set of NICs, perhaps 10Gb. In the VMware Fault tolerance system, all states of two nodes need to be fully synchronized, resulting in a large amount of network traffic.

Access to a storage area network also requires a dedicated network adapter, which is only available for iSCSI or NFS environments. Like other networks, the storage network requires another redundant network card. If you use an FC San then you do not need to configure a dedicated NIC for storage access, it has its own private interface.

After these features are installed, consider the users who need access to the virtual machine in the vsphere network. Best practices suggest that end users are also accessed through a dedicated set of redundant network cards. So far, the implementation of the basic functionality requires at least eight NICs.

Configure network adapters in the Vsphere network

The first challenge in configuring a vsphere Environment network card is to install the management network, which is done when the vsphere server is installed. This step is somewhat complicated: at this point there are at least four ports, but only one is connected to the management network or VLAN. At this point in time, the interface shows only a set of bundled network cards.

However, vsphere Setup does not recognize which network port is connected to which switch, so multiple attempts are required. If the management network is configured correctly, the installation is complete.

Next, you need to install the virtual switch on the vsphere host you installed. You need to install at least one Virtual switch for the vsphere network architecture.

VMware virtual switches are software based on the Vmkernel Communication Control tool. The virtual machine needs to be configured to access the physical LAN through a virtualized switch. Standard switches need to be configured for each individual virtual host to work. However, distributed switch systems can be shared across the entire ESXi host system, making it easy to manage virtual networks.

You also need to decide how many virtual switches to configure for a virtual network. In some cases, you can connect all of your virtual hosts to the same virtual switch. In other cases, such as physical security being the first priority, it is a good idea to create at least one Virtual switch per host to completely isolate traffic.

Before you begin installing the first ESXi host, make a plan to understand the type of VMware network configuration you will be creating. This way, you can buy the right hardware and move forward in a manageable direction from the start of the network.

Virtualization-Network Best practices