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ESXi network configuration

Hi,

I have a machine with 2 quad core processors with 16G RAM and 2 giga bit NICs. ESX 4i is installed on this machine.
I have to deploy 6 VMs on it. I am bit confused with network configuration. I know all these VMs just need one CPU and 1-2G RAM. Please suggest best way to configure these two nics to handle the traffic interms of performance and security.

Many thanks.

bgoering

Much depends on your physical network. If your switches are capable of VLAN trunking (or if there is no need for more than one IP subnet) just add your 2nd NIC to the existing vSwitch created during install, then under the vSwitch properties on the NIC teaming tab make both active - would recommend the IP hash load balancing method. This will give you some fault tolerance as well as more bandwidth for your virtual machine traffic.

Let us know your requirements for the vms. Are they all to be on the same network? Let us know about your physical switches. Are they VLAN capable?

Good Luck

James_3

You may find the following link useful

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1004088

Cheers

sysbase

ASKER

Thanks for replies guys,

At this point all VMs would be on same subnet but later on I will be spliting them on different VLANS. but I think we can manage firewall rules for individual VM IP on our hardware firewall. I mean ACLs for in-out traffic to those VMs? right?

Actually, I have all these 6 physicall old machines. These are not heavy machines, I mean can easily be managed on VMs but 2 of them are web servers which needs good response back to clients.

Would this be good to use 3 machienes 1 phycial NIC and rest 3 machienes should use other physical NIC? or the way to load balance accross both? and if one network card/connect fails the other should response? what about service management console?

James_3

The below link is very good to and covers vlans and more in depth load balancing.
http://www.tcpdump.com/kb/virtualization/vmware-esx-server/esx-nic-teaming/intro.html

If you configure the vswitch with load balancing and connect the nics to different physical switches if possible then it would all have failover if a problem were to arise. I would configure all 6 Vms to use both nics.

sysbase

ASKER

James, how would you configure all 6 VMs to use both nics? would you explain please?

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James_3

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bgoering

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vnekic

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sysbase

ASKER

Thanks guys for replying me here. really appreciate that.

So I have setup one VSwitch0, 2 NIC with it. I have attached the image as well.
I have setup
Load Balancing: IP Hash

Can you guys please suggest what I should setup the rest of properties. You guys can have a look on the image too.

IP Hash and all these properties should be setup on VSwitch or VmNetwork (Virtual Machines Network)?

bgoering

What you have there looks good to me. Are you still having issues?