Simplify VMware vSphere* 4 Networking with Intel Ethernet 10 Gigabit Server Adapters

The Foundation of Virtualization
WHITEPAPER
6
The soluTion: refresh infrasTruCTure
wiTh 10 GiGaBiT eTherneT
The complexity issue and other limitations associated with GbE described
above can be addressed by consolidating all types of trac onto 10GbE
connections.
With the advent of dynamic server consolidation and increasingly power-
ful servers such as those based on Intel
®
Nehalem architecture, more
workloads and applications than ever before are being consolidated per
physical host. As a result, the need is even greater for high-bandwidth
10GbE solutions. Moreover, features that provide high performance with
multicore servers, optimizations for virtualization, and unified networking
with Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and iSCSI make 10GbE the clear
connectivity medium of choice for the data center.
Moving from multiple GbE to fewer 10GbE connections will enable a
flexible, dynamic, and scalable network infrastructure that reduces
complexity and management overhead, and provides high availability
and redundancy. Figure 2 shows an installation analogous to that in
Figure 1, but using 10GbE connectivity and two GbE ports for the service
console. This installation makes use of the VMware vNetwork Distributed
Switch (vDS) feature (see Best Practice 1). Using vDS provides the same
basic functions as standard virtual switches, but they exist across two
or more clustered ESX or ESXi hosts. Using a hybrid model of standard
virtual switches and vDS allows for management of the vDS if the switch
fails and keeps service console trac on a physically separate network
connection. Figure 3 takes the topology shown in Figure 2 one step
further and shows the installation with only 10GbE connections.
The obvious advantage of the 10GbE solution is that it reduces the
overall physical connection count, simplifying infrastructure manage-
ment considerations and the cable plant. Moving to a smaller number
of physical ports reduces the wiring complexity and the risk of driver
incompatibility, which can help to enhance reliability. For additional reli-
ability, customers may choose to use ports on separate physical server
adapters. The new topology has the following characteristics:
•Two10GbEportsfornetworktrac,usingNICteamingfor
aggregation or redundancy
•OnetotwoGbEportsforadedicatedserviceconsoleconnection
on a standard virtual switch (optional)
•SANconvergedon10GbE,usingiSCSI
•BandwidthallocationcontrolledbyVMwareESX*
VMware
VMotion*
Port #1
10Gb
Port #2
10Gb
APP
OS
APP
OS
APP
OS
Service
Console
APP
OS
VMware vNetwork
Distributed Switch
Figure 3: VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch with 10GbE server adapters for both
network and service console trac.
With the advent of dynamic server consolidation and increasingly
powerful servers such as those based on Intel
®
Nehalem architecture,
more workloads and applications than ever before are being
consolidated per physical host.