- 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
Plan network settings for VxRail management components
From the initial build of the VxRail cluster, the IP addresses that are assigned to the VxRail components which are members of the external management network and the VMware vCenter Server management network, must adhere to the following requirements:
- The scheme must be a public IP address range.
- Fixed (no DHCP).
- Cannot be in use.
- The range must all be in the same subnet.
You have some flexibility in how the IP addresses are assigned to the VxRail management components.
For the VMware ESXi hosts:
- You can manually assign the IP addresses to the VMware ESXi hosts.
- You can have the IP addresses auto-assigned during VxRail initial build.
The decisions that you make on the final VxRail configuration that is planned for your data center impacts the number of IP addresses you must reserve.
- Decide if you want to reserve additional IP addresses for VxRail management to assign to VxRail nodes in the future for expansion purposes in a single rack. When a new node is added to an existing VxRail cluster, it assigns an IP address from the unused reserve pool, or prompts you to enter an IP address manually if none are in reserve and unused.
- Decide whether you are going to use the VMware vCenter Server instance that is deployed in the VxRail cluster or use an external VMware vCenter Server already operational in your data center.
- If you use the VMware vCenter Server instance that is supplied by VxRail, you must reserve an IP address for VMware vCenter Server.
- Decide if you are going to use VMware vSphere Log Insight that can be deployed in the VxRail cluster.
- For VxRail version 7.0 and earlier, if you use the VMware vCenter Server instance that is deployed in the VxRail cluster, you have the option to deploy VMware vSphere Log Insight on the cluster. You can also choose to connect to an existing syslog server in your data center, or no logging at all. If you choose to deploy VMware vSphere Log Insight in the VxRail cluster, you must reserve one IP address.
- VMware vRealize Log Insight is not an option for deployment during the initial VxRail configuration process starting with version 7.0.010.
- If you use an external VMware vCenter Server already operational in your data center for VxRail, VMware vSphere Log Insight cannot be deployed.
Request your networking team to reserve a subnet range that has sufficient open IP addresses to cover VxRail initial build and any planned future expansion.
Use the following table to determine the number of public IP addresses required for external connectivity:
| Component | Condition |
|---|---|
| VxRail Node | One per VxRail node if single-stack, two per VxRail node for dual-stack |
| VxRail Manager | One for single-stack, two for dual-stack |
| VMware vCenter Server |
|
Depending on whether VxRail is being deployed with either single-stack or dual-stack networking, your networking team must provide the IPv4 or IPv6 network settings for the VxRail External Management Network. Use the following tables to capture these values:
| Network configuration table | Action |
|---|---|
| Row 8 | Enter the IPv4 subnet mask for the VxRail External Management network. |
| Row 9 | Enter the IPv4 gateway for the VxRail External Management network. |
| Network configuration table | Action |
|---|---|
| Row 10 | Enter the IPv6 subnet mask for the VxRail External Management network. |
| Row 11 | Enter the IPv6 gateway for the VxRail External Management network. |
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