Because blade servers may have a limited number of network adapters, it will likely be necessary to use VLANs to separate traffic for the service console, VMotion, IP storage, and various groups of VMs. VMware best practices recommend that the service console and VMotion have their own networks for security reasons. If you dedicate physical adapters to separate vSwitches for this purpose, you will likely have to give up redundant (teamed) connections or give up isolating the various networking clients, or both. VLANs allow you to achieve network ostentation without having to use multiple physical adapters.
For the network blade of a blade server to support an ESX Server port group with VLAN tagged traffic, you must configure the blade to support 802.1Q and configure the port as a tagged port.
The method for configuring a port as a tagged port differs from server to server. The following list describes how to configure a tagged port on three of the most commonly used blade servers:
- HP Blade — Set the port’s VLAN Tagging to enabled.
- Dell PowerEdge — Set the port to Tagged.
- IBM eServer Blade Center — Select Tag in the port’s configuration.
To configure a virtual machine port group with VLAN on a blade server
- Log into the VMware VI Client and select the server from the inventory panel.
The hardware configuration page for this server appears.
- Click the Configuration tab, and click Networking.
- On the right side of the screen, click Properties for vSwitch associated with the service console.
- On the Ports tab, click Add.
The Add Network Wizard appears.
- As a connection type, select Virtual Machines, which is the default.
- Click Next.
The Connection Settings page appears.
- Under Port Group Properties, enter a network label that identifies the port group that you are creating.
Use network labels to identify migration-compatible connections common to two or more hosts. - In the VLAN ID field, enter a number between 1 and 4094.
If you are unsure what to enter, leave this blank or ask your network administrator. - Click Next.
The Ready to Complete page appears.
- After you have determined that the vSwitch is configured correctly, click Finish.
To configure a VMkernel port with VLAN on a blade server
- Log into the VMware VI Client and select the server from the inventory panel.
The hardware configuration page for this server appears.
- Click the Configuration tab, and click Networking.
- On the right side of the screen, click Properties for vSwitch associated with the service console.
- On the Ports tab, click Add.
The Add Network Wizard appears.
- Select VMkernel and click Next.
This lets you connect the VMkernel, which runs services for VMotion and IP storage (NFS or iSCSI), to the physical network.
The Connection Settings page appears. - Under Port Group Properties, select or enter a network label and a VLAN ID.
- Network Label — A name that identifies the port group that you are creating. This is the label that you specify when configuring a virtual adapter to be attached to this port group, when configuring VMkernel services, such as VMotion and IP storage.
- VLAN ID — Identifies the VLAN that the port group’s network traffic will use.
- Select the Use this port group for VMotion check box to enable this port group to advertise itself to another ESX Server as the network connection where VMotion traffic should be sent.
You can enable this property for only one VMotion and IP storage port group for each ESX Server host. If this property is not enabled for any port group, migration with VMotion to this host is not possible.
- Under IP Settings, click Edit to set the VMkernel Default Gateway for VMkernel services, such as VMotion, NAS, and iSCSI
Note
Make sure that you set a default gateway for the port that you created. VirtualCenter 2 behaves differently here from VirtualCenter 1.x. You must use a valid IP address to configure the VMkernel IP stack, not a dummy address.
The DNS and Routing Configuration dialog box appears. Under the DNS Configuration tab, the name of the host is entered into the name field by default. The DNS server addresses that were specified during installation are also preselected as is the domain.
Under the Routing tab, the service console and the VMkernel each need their own gateway information. A gateway is needed if connectivity to machines not on the same IP subnet as the service console or VMkernel.
Static IP settings is the default. - Click OK to save your changes, and close the DNS Configuration and Routing dialog box.
- Click Next.
- Use the Back button to make any changes.
- Review your changes on the Ready to Complete page and click Finish.
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Tags: Blade, iSCSI, Networking, server, Storage