Administrator Guide
15 Dell FS8600 with VMware vSphere Deployment and Configuration Best practices
NFS Datastores Network
ST
Gb 1 Gb 2 Gb 3 Gb 4
1
2
1
2
43
5
6
LnkAct
Port0 1
LnkAct
VIP01 = 10.0.0.11/24
VIP00 = 10.0.0.10/24
VMK0 = 10.0.0.1/24
VMK1 = 10.0.1.1/24
Path Between VMK0 and VIP00/VIP01
Path Between VMK1 and VIP10/VIP11
Switch
Infrastructure
10.0.0.0/24
10.0.1.0/24
ESX Host
FluidFS Appliance
VIP11 = 10.0.1.11/24
VIP10 = 10.0.1.10/24
Figure 5 Subnet Based Load Sharing
For example, a host with two teamed VMNICs and two VMkernel ports vmk
0
10.0.0.1/24 and vmk
1
10.0.1.1/24
will use vmk
0
to reach 10.0.0.10/24 and vmk
1
to reach 10.0.1.10/24, as shown in Figure 5. When the traffic to each
destination subnet is routed via a different VMkernel, it is also transmitted via a different physical VMNIC accordingly.
The configuration of other ESX hosts in the cluster should be done following the same principle and sharing the same
subnets.
Therefore, the number of subnets required to effectively share NFS datastore traffic among teamed VMNICs on an ESX
host needs to be equal to the number of NICs on the team. In a solution where multiple hosts have different numbers of
VMNICs assigned for datastore traffic, choose the number of subnets according to the host with the largest number of
VMNICs.
Finally, configure the corresponding subnets in the FS8600 client network with the necessary VIPs (See FS8600 Client
Network Configuration13)
5.2 Load Balancing Between FS8600 Controllers
The FS8600 automatically distributes client connections among all controllers in the cluster and their physical network
links. Uniform distribution is guaranteed when many clients are served by the appliance, where each is assigned a node
and a physical interface. However, in environments such as vSphere where only few ESX hosts are served, Dell
recommends these two practices to help optimize connection balancing across controllers in the FS8600.
a. Configure one VIP for each FS8600 controller in every client network subnet.
Two connections from a single VMkernel IP address, each to a different VIP in the FS8600, are very likely to
target two different controllers. Therefore, Dell recommends that you alternate (round-robin) between different
VIPs in the subnet each time you mount a datastore (See Figure 6 for an illustrative example).
b. Review the ESX hosts connection balance and manually adjust when necessary.
Dell recommends monitoring the connection assignments after mounting/unmounting several datastores, when
changing NFS network configuration settings or performing maintenance operations. Verify that connections
are evenly balanced among controllers and their interfaces and adjust as necessary using the FS8600 automatic
and/or manual connection rebalancing mechanisms.