- Notes, cautions, and warnings
- Revision history
- Introduction
- VxRail network planning overview
- Plan the VxRail network
- VxRail cluster types
- VxRail hardware and switch selection decision points
- Prepare the data center to implement VxRail
- Decide on an IP address scheme
- Prepare external network connectivity for VxRail
- Prepare service connectivity for VxRail
- Prepare for VMware vSphere+ subscription licensing
- Prepare data center routing services
- Prepare for multirack VxRail cluster
- Prepare for VMware vSAN HCI mesh topology
- Prepare external FC storage for dynamic clusters
- Prepare for VxRail custom uplink assignments
- Prepare data center network MTU
- Prepare for LAG of VxRail networks
- Plan LAG on switch port pairs
- Prepare certificate authority server for VxRail
- Identify isolation IP addresses for VMware vSphere High Availability
- Plan the VxRail cluster implementation
- Decide on VxRail single point of management
- Decide on VxRail network traffic segmentation
- Decide on teaming and failover policies for VxRail networks
- Plan the VxRail logical network
- Plan network settings for VxRail management components
- Plan network settings for VMware vCenter Server management network
- Identify IP addresses for VxRail management components
- Select hostnames for VxRail management components
- Identify external applications and settings for VxRail
- Prepare the customer-managed VMware vCenter Server
- Prepare a customer-managed VMware VDS
- Reserve IP addresses for VxRail-managed VMware vSphere vMotion network
- Reserve IPv4/IPv6 addresses for VxRail vSAN network
- Decide on VxRail logging solution
- Assign passwords for VxRail management
- Plan VMware vSAN witness networking
- Plan networking for VxRail Satellite Nodes
- Configure the Network for VxRail
- Prepare to build the VxRail cluster
- VxRail network considerations after implementation
- Appendix A: VxRail Network Configuration Table
- Appendix B: VxRail Passwords
- Appendix C: VxRail cluster setup checklist
- Appendix D: VxRail Open Ports Requirements
- Appendix E: VMware VDS port group default settings
- Appendix F: Physical Network Switch Examples
- Pre-defined network profile: 2x10gb or 2x25gb from a single NDC/OCP
- Predefined network profile: 4x10gb or 4x25gb NDC/OCP
- Predefined network profile: 2 x 10/25 GB NDC/OCP and 2 x 10/25 GB PCIe
- Custom option: Any NDC/OCP ports paired with PCIe ports
- Custom option: Two NDC/OCP ports paired with PCIe ports other than the first slot
- Custom option: PCIe ports only
- Custom option: Six ports
- Custom option: Eight ports
- Custom option: Eight ports connected to four Ethernet switches
Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide
Network rules for the VMware vSAN witness and VxRail
For both the VxRail stretched cluster and the VxRail 2-node cluster, configure the networks on the VMware vSAN witness virtual appliance to ensure proper cluster operations.
Follow these guidelines:
- Configure the VMware vSAN witness virtual appliance with the following two separate networks during deployment:
- Management Network for management.
- Secondary Network to support VMware vSAN witness traffic.
- The VMware vSAN witness management IP address on the management network must be reachable by the VMware vCenter Server instance supporting the VxRail cluster. Add the VMware vSAN witness to the VMware vCenter Server inventory as a VMware ESXi host to support VMware vSAN witness traffic with the VxRail cluster.
- Each VxRail node and the VMware vSAN witness must be able to connect over the VMware vSAN witness traffic network.
- An IP address is assigned to each VxRail node in the cluster to support VMware vSAN witness network traffic.
- An IP address is assigned to the VMware vSAN witness virtual appliance also to support VMware vSAN witness network traffic on the
Secondary Network.
Figure 1. Network relationships for vSAN witness and VxRail. Network relationships for VMware vSAN witness and VxRail 
- For a VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server, VMware vSAN management traffic on the Management Network must route to the VxRail-managed VMware Server network. VxRail Manager configures this network during the initial build process.
- For a 2-node cluster planned with only L2 networking, and a VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server, the VMware vSAN witness management IP address must be in the VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server network subnet range.
- For a customer-managed VMware vCenter Server instance, VMware vSAN management traffic on the
Management Network must route to this VMware vCenter Server instance.
Figure 2. With or without Witness Traffic Separation network. With or without the WTS network. 
- If a WTS network is planned for the VxRail cluster, VMware vSAN witness traffic on the Secondary Network must be able to route to this network.
- If a WTS network is not considered for the VxRail cluster, then the VMware vSAN witness traffic on the Secondary Network must route to the VMware vSAN network planned for the VxRail cluster.
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