Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide

Plan the VxRail logical network

The physical connections between the network switch ports and the NICs on the VxRail nodes enable communications for the virtual infrastructure within the VxRail cluster.

The virtual infrastructure within the VxRail cluster uses VMware VDS to enable communication within the cluster and to IT management and the application user community.

VxRail has predefined logical networks to manage and control traffic within and outside of the cluster. Make VxRail logical networks accessible to the outside community. For instance, IT management requires connectivity to the VxRail management system. VxRail networks must be configured for end-users and application owners who require access to their applications and VMs running in the VxRail cluster.

You need a network to support I/O to the VMware vSAN datastore unless you use FC storage as the primary storage resource with a dynamic cluster. Configure a network to support VMware vSphere vMotion, which is used to dynamically migrate VMs between VxRail nodes to balance workload. You also need an internal management network by VxRail for device discovery. Skip the internal management network if you plan to use manual device discovery. All PowerEdge servers that are the foundation for VxRail nodes include a separate Ethernet port. The Ethernet port enables OOB connectivity to the platform to perform hardware-based maintenance and troubleshooting tasks.

A separate network to support management access to the PowerEdge servers is recommended, but not required.