6.0

One way to achieve the 1:1 mapping when you have multiple NICs, is to designate a separate vSphere
switch for each virtual-to-physical adapter pair.
NOTE If you use separate vSphere switches, you must connect them to different IP subnets. Otherwise,
VMkernel adapters might experience connectivity problems and the host will fail to discover iSCSI LUNs.
The following examples show configurations that use vSphere standard switches, but you can use
distributed switches as well. For more information about vSphere distributed switches, see the vSphere
Networking documentation.
Figure 24‑2. 1:1 adapter mapping on separate vSphere standard switches
VMkernel adapters
Physical adapters
vmnic1
iSCSI1
vmk1
vSwitch1
VMkernel adapters
Physical adapters
vmnic2
iSCSI2
vmk2
vSwitch2
An alternative is to add all NICs and VMkernel adapters to a single vSphere standard switch. In this case,
you must override the default network setup and make sure that each VMkernel adapter maps to only one
corresponding active physical adapter.
NOTE You must use the single vSwitch configuration if VMkernel adapters are on the same subnet.
Figure 24‑3. 1:1 adapter mapping on a single vSphere standard switch
VMkernel adapters
Physical adapters
vmnic2
vmnic1
iSCSI2
vmk2
iSCSI1
vmk1
vSwitch1
The following table summarises the iSCSI networking configuration discussed in this topic.
Table 24‑1. Networking configuration for iSCSI
iSCSI Adapters VMkernel Adapters (Ports) Physical Adapters (NICs)
Software iSCSI
vmhba32 vmk1 vmnic1
vmk2 vmnic2
Dependent Hardware iSCSI
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client
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