Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide

Appendix F: Physical Network Switch Examples

The diagrams in this appendix show various options for physical wiring between VxRail nodes and the adjacent,ToR switches. They are provided as illustrative examples to help with the planning and design process for physical network connectivity. All VxRail nodes are manufactured with Ethernet ports that are built into the chassis. VxRail nodes support NDC or adapters that are supported by the OCP specifications for the integrated Ethernet ports, depending on VxRail model. Optional PCIe adapter cards can be installed in the VxRail nodes to provide additional Ethernet ports for redundancy purposes and increased bandwidth. These examples display options starting with connectivity from a single NDC/OCP adapter to network topologies that address requirements for failure protection and optimal bandwidth distribution.

If additional Ethernet connectivity is required to support other use cases outside of VxRail networking, such as additional guest networks or external storage, additional slots on the VxRail nodes should be reserved for PCIe adapter cards. If this is a current requirement or potential future requirement, be sure to select a VxRail node model with sufficient PCIe slots to accommodate the additional adapter cards. The examples include topologies for predefined network profiles and custom network profiles. With a predefined network profile, VxRail Manager automatically selects the Ethernet ports for assignment to VxRail networks. With a custom network profile, the network topology is manually configured using VxRail Manager. Custom network profiles are supported with VxRail 7.0.130 or later.

Network profiles using six ports and eight ports for VxRail networking are supported with VxRail 7.0.400 or later.