Mixing 10GbE and 1GbE iSCSI VMware

Dan Henery
Dan Henery used Ask the Experts™
We have a client with with a vSphere environment that is currently connected to HPE Lefthand StoreVirtual SAN. The client wants to  introduce a new 3Par SAN which is 10GbE iSCSI and wants to add 10GbE NICs to the hosts. Is it possible to mix 1GbE and 10GbE connections for iSCSI on s single ESXi Host?
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Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert / EE Fellow)VMware and Virtualization Consultant
Fellow 2018
Expert of the Year 2017

Commented:
Yes....but I would create two separate iSCSI Storage networks.

e.g. create at least two pairs of VMKernel Portgroups.
kevinhsiehNetwork Engineer

Commented:
I assume that they would want to retire the Lefthand. I would look to retiring the 1G connections on the host and just use the 10G long term.
Dan HeneryLead Infrastructure Engineer

Author

Commented:
Hi Kevin, The Lefthand will not be retired for at least another year or more and at that time they will probably update the ESXi Hosts as well since they are DL380 Gen8

Andrew, So basically as long as we configure a separate vSwitch, up-link the 10GbE to that and create the VMKernel ports there we should be fine? Is there any concern with the current port-binding of the 4X1GbE NICs in the iSCSI Initiator properties?
VMware and Virtualization Consultant
Fellow 2018
Expert of the Year 2017
Commented:
Yes, that's correct, because effectively you are building a new iSCSI Storage network, with new IP Addresses.
andyalder
Top Expert 2014

Commented:
Wouldn't FCoE be better than iSCSI ? Pretty sure the 3PAR will support it. You may not even need switches since 3PAR love multiple host ports.

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