Deployment Guide

25 VxFlex Network Deployment Guide using Dell EMC Networking 25GbE switches and OS9

5 VMware virtual network design

In this section, tables are provided that outline the virtual network design used in this deployment. Specific

steps to create the distributed switches, VMkernels, and setting NIC teaming policies are not covered in this

document. See vSphere Networking Guide for vSphere 6.5, ESXi 6.5, and vCenter Server 6.5.

5.1 ESXi management

The default VMkernel, vmk0 is used for ESXi management and is migrated from the default standard switch

to the VDS created in this section. See: How to migrate service console / VMkernel port from standard

switches to VMware vSphere Distributed Switch.

5.2 Load balancing

In the deployment, two different load balancing algorithms are used. VxFlex data networks (VxFlex Data 1

and VxFlex Data 2) use the route based on originating virtual port. Each port group is assigned a single

interface as active while the other interface is unused. This creates a traditional storage topology where each

host has two separate networks both logically and physically.

The remaining port groups use Route based on Physical NIC Load. Both uplinks are set as active, and I/O is

automatically balanced across both interfaces. The Virtual Distributed Switches (VDS) tests the associated

uplinks every 30 seconds, and if their load exceeds 75 percent of usage, the port ID of the virtual machine

with the highest I/O is moved to a different uplink.

5.3 Configuration details

The following tables contain the pre- and post-installation configuration details for the VDS used for the

VxFlex cluster.

Virtual switch details

VDS switch name

Function

Physical NIC

port count

MTU

atx01-w01-vds01

• ESXI_MGMT_IP

• ESXI_VMOTION_IP

• SVM_MGMT_IP

• Node_DATA1_IP & SVM_DATA1_IP

• Node_DATA2_IP & SVM_DATA2_IP

9000

Port group configuration settings

Parameter

Settings

Failover Detection

Link status only

Notify switches

Enabled

Failback

Yes