Topics 

Networking Concepts 

Storage Concepts

Presentation by Anand Mewalal

Vmware VI3 Concepts On networking and Storage

Networking Concepts

There are 3 types of Port : Service Console Port

Virtual Machine Port

VMKernal port

Virtual Switch : vSwitch detects which virtual machines are logically connected to each of its virtual ports and uses that information to forward traffic to the correct virtual machines.

Port Group: Specifies port configuration options such as bandwidth limitations and VLAN tagging policies for each member port.

Labeled networks are properly configured only when all port groups using the same network label are able to see the same broadcast traffic.

vNic Mac Address: An Algorithm is run which takes a combination of Network Adapter OUI (organizationally uniqueIdentifier) x Vmware UUID (Universally Unique Identifier)

Max No of vSwitches on a single host – 248

Max no of logical port of a single switch – 1016

Max no of port groups on a single host – 512

Creating a Virtual SwitchClick the Configuration tab, and click Networking. On the right side of the screen, click Add Networking.

Virtual Switch Properties Page

Design a network configuration for an ESX server based on a set of requirements

You are an administrator in charge of configuring an ESX server in your company's production environment. Fill in the virtual switch layer, indicating port groups and thier policies, and the physical connection between the server's physical NIC's and the external switches.

Details of the networking environment include

VM's and Application: Web based applications implemented using 3 VM's arranged as follows:

VM1 and VM2 - the web servers

- NAT Clients of VM3

VM3 - the front end for the web server

- act as a NAT router for the backend VM's

VM4, a test box - used to test intrusion detection systems and virus protection software, among other applications

IP based Storage - A NAS, used to hold running vm for the test VM's only (storage for the production VM's is provided by SAN)

Physical NIC's : There are 4 physical adapters, 1 x 100MBPS and 3 Gig Ethernet cards

Ethernet networks: There are 2 physical switches and 4 external LAN's, each named to indicate its purpose. A single physical switch is configured to handle traffic for 3 networks, which are implemented as VLAN's. One Physical switch is dedicated to the management LAN that by company policy must be physially separated from all networks. The management LAN is used by Virtuial centre.

Storage ConceptsESX Server supports the following types of storage devices:

Local – Stores files locally on an internal or external SCSI device.

Fibre Channel – Stores files remotely on a Storage Area Network (SAN). Requires Fibre Channel adapters.

iSCSI (hardware initiated) – Stores files on remote iSCSI storage devices. Files are accessed over TCP/IP network using hardware-based iSCSI HBAs . It Uses CHAP authentication.

iSCSI (software initiated) – Stores files on remote iSCSI storage devices. Files are accessed over TCP/IP network using software-based iSCSI code in the VMkernel.

Network file system (NFS) – Stores files on remote file servers. Files are accessed over TCP/IP network using the NFS protocol. Requires a standard network

adapter for network connectivity.

Boot ESX File System RDM VM Cluster VCB VMKernal Port

Fibre Channel YES VMFS YES YES YES NO

ISCSI YES VMFS YES No No Yes

NAS NO NFS No No No Yes

SAN STORAGE - Multipathing

Max LUN’s per host – 256 LUN’s

Max virtual HBA per VM – 4 HBA

Max targets per HBA – 15

Max target per VM – 60

SAN – WWPN – vmhba1:3:0:1

adapter, target, LUN, and partition

ISCSI – IQN No: iqn.1998-01.com.mycompany:myserver

iqn.<year-mo>.<reversed_domain_name>:<unique_name>

You can have Fibre Channel and Iscsi HBA in the same ESX server but not supported to access the same LUN.

THANK YOU