Users Guide

Networking best practices

• Various network topologies for TOR switch(es) and VLANs are possible with EVO:RAIL. Complex

production environments have multiple core switches, TOR switches, and VLANs.

• For high-availability, use two TOR switches and connect one port from each node to each TOR

switch. Connect multiple TOR switches through a VLAN trunked interfaces, and ensure that all VLANs

used for EVO:RAIL are carried across the trunk following the requirements in this document .

• If you plan to scale out to multiple EVO:RAIL appliances in a cluster over time, allocate extra IP

addresses for each of the ESXi, vMotion, and Virtual SAN IP pools when you configure the first

appliance (12 extra IP addresses per appliance). Then when you add appliances to a cluster, you only

need to enter the ESXi and vCenter Server passwords.

• Only one appliance can be added at a time. To add multiple appliances, turn on one at a time, making

sure that each is properly configured before powering on the next appliance.

• All network traffic (except for out-of-band management) is on the 10 GbE NICs. Each node in an

EVO:RAIL appliance has two 10 GbE network ports. Each port must be connected to a 10 GbE switch

that supports IPv4 multicast and IPv6 multicast.

• Although EVO:RAIL uses IPv6 traffic between nodes, your network does not need to be explicitly

configured for IPv6, other than fulfilling the multicast requirements for EVO:RAIL ports and VLANs

described in this document.

• EVO:RAIL supports four types of traffic: Management, vSphere vMotion, Virtual SAN, and Virtual

Machine. Traffic isolation on separate VLANs is highly recommended. EVO:RAIL traffic is separated as

follows:

Table 17. Interfaces for traffic

Network 1st 10 GbE NIC 2nd 10 GbE NIC

Management (EVO:RAIL, vCenter Server,

ESXi, Log Insight)

Active Standby

vSphere vMotion Active Standby

Virtual SAN Standby Active

Virtual Machines Active Standby

• To ensure vSphere vMotion traffic does not consume all available bandwidth on the 10 GbE port,

EVO:RAIL limits vMotion traffic to 4 Gbps.

• Dell recommends to use different VLAN IDs for Virtual SAN traffic and for management across

multiple EVO:RAIL clusters. Otherwise, all appliances on the same network see all multicast traffic.