fbpx

Multiple-NIC vMotion in vSphere 5

  1. Log into the vSphere Client and select the host from the inventory panel.
  2. Click the Configuration tab and select Networking.
  3. Click Add Networking and choose VMkernel as the Connection Type.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Add two or more NICs to the required standard switch. You can create a new vSphere standard switch or use an existing vSwitch.Note: Ensure that all adapters are on the same network when connected to a physical Ethernet environment. If the adapters are split across switches, then all adapters must be able to communicate across those switches.
  6. Name the VMkernel portgroup (for example, vMotion-01), and assign a VLAN ID as required.
  7. Click Use this port group for vMotion, then click Next vMotion NICs
  8. Configure the IP address and subnet mask, then click Next..
  9. Click the Properties tab of the vSwitch, select the vMotion-01 portgroup, and click Edit.
  10. Click the NIC Teaming tab.
  11. Under Failover Order, select Override switch failover order.
  12. Configure the first adapter (for example, vmnic1) as active and move the second adapter (for example, vmnic3) to Unused Adapters.
  13. Click OK.
  14. Under the vSwitch Properties, click Add to create a second VMkernel portgroup.
  15. Name the VMkernel portgroup (for example, vMotion-02), and assign a VLAN ID as required.Note: Ensure that both VMkernel interfaces participating in the vMotion have the IP address from the same IP subnet.
  16. Click Use this port group for vMotion, then click Next.
  17. Configure the IP address and subnet mask, then click Next.
  18. Click the Properties tab of the vSwitch, select the vMotion-02 portgroup, and click Edit.
  19. Click the NIC Teaming tab.
  20. Under Failover Order, select Override switch failover order.
  21. Configure the second adapter (for example, vmnic3) as active and move the first adapter (for example, vmnic1) to Unused Adapters.
  22. On the Properties tab of the vSwitch, select each vMotion portgroup in turn and confirm that the active and standby adapters are the reverse of each other.
  23. I repeated the tasks above two more times because I have four nics for iSCSI traffic. Each nic went to its own physical network card, which was further bound to the Software iSCSI HBA.

In the below picture, you can see an inbound migration at the beginning of the graph, and later after the configuration you can see the same machines migrated outbound post configuration on both vHosts.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *