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NetworkingBestPracticesforVMwareInfrastructure3onDellPowerEdgeBladeServers

3 NetworkArchitecture

Network traffic can be divided into two primary types - Local Area Network (LAN) and iSCSI Storage Area

Network (SAN). LAN consists of traffic from virtual machines, ESX/ESXi management (service console for ESX),

and VMotion. iSCSI SAN consists of iSCSI storage network traffic. You can replace the iSCSI network with the

Fibre Channel SAN by replacing the network adapters with the Fibre Channel and network switches with Fibre

Channel switches. This section discusses the best practices for the iSCSI SAN only.

3.1 DesignPrinciples

The following design principles are used to develop the network architecture:

• Redundancy: Both LAN and iSCSI SAN have redundant I/O modules. Redundancy of the network

adapters is achieved through NIC teaming at the virtual switch.

• Simplified management through stacking: You can combine switches servicing the same traffic type into

logical fabrics using the high-speed stacking ports on the switches.

• iSCSI SAN physical isolation: You should physically separate the iSCSI SAN network from the LAN

network. Typically iSCSI traffic is network intensive and may consume disproportionate share of the

switch resources if sharing a switch with LAN traffic.

• Logical isolation of VMotion using VLAN: VMotion traffic is unencrypted. It is important to logically

isolate the VMotion traffic using VLANs.

• Optimal performance: Load balancing is used to achieve the highest throughput possible

3.2 RecommendedConfigurations

Based on the bandwidth requirements of LAN and iSCSI SAN, there are different ways to configure the I/O

modules. The different configurations are listed in the table below. They meet the design principles listed above.

Table 2: Bandwidth Configurations for LAN and iSCSI SAN

Minimum

Configuration

Base -

High LAN

Bandwidth

Balanced High

iSCSI

Bandwidth

Isolated Fabric

I/O Module A1 LAN LAN LAN LAN LAN

I/O Module B1 iSCSI SAN iSCSI SAN iSCSI SAN iSCSI SAN iSCSI SAN

I/O Module C1 Blank LAN LAN iSCSI SAN Isolated Fabric

I/O Module C2 Blank LAN iSCSI SAN iSCSI SAN Isolated Fabric

I/O Module B2 iSCSI SAN iSCSI SAN iSCSI SAN iSCSI SAN iSCSI SAN

I/O Module A2 LAN LAN LAN LAN LAN



• Minimum Configuration: This is the simplest configuration and has the minimum number of I/O

modules. Two I/O modules are dedicated for LAN and two for iSCSI SAN. Two modules are left blank and

you can populate them at any time to meet any growing bandwidth demands.

• Base - High LAN Bandwidth: In this configuration four I/O modules are dedicated to the LAN and two

I/O modules dedicated to the iSCSI SAN. This configuration is useful for environments which have high

LAN bandwidth requirements. Requirements of most environments can be met

with this configuration.The

rest of this whitepaper uses this configuration to further illustrate best practices. You can easily apply the

best practices to other configurations.

• Balanced: In this configuration three I/O modules are dedicated to both LAN and iSCSI SAN. Both fabrics

have an equal amount of bandwidth allocated. This configuration is useful for environments which have

high back end SAN requirements such as database environments.

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