Windows Various ESXi questions including running an Active Directory Domain Controller

Discussion in 'Software' started by Chicken76, 7 Oct 2012.

  1. Chicken76

    Chicken76 Minimodder

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    As I understand it, for iSCSI, bonding NICs won't increase throughput, right? (unless you have each VM on a separate iSCSI target, each target with it's own IP address)
     
  2. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    DON'T BOND iSCSI!!!!!

    Use MPIO instead.
     
  3. Chicken76

    Chicken76 Minimodder

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    Ehmmm... can you provide any link explaining the whys and hows?
     
  4. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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  5. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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  6. Chicken76

    Chicken76 Minimodder

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  7. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    5.1 gives the ability for bigger datastores & smaller block sizes which is good.

    Nothing major has changed regarding configuration (I jump between v4.1, v5 & v5.1 without noticing any real changes)
     
  8. Chicken76

    Chicken76 Minimodder

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    OK, so NIC bonding is not a good choice for iSCSI. But is it for VM traffic?
    Say I have a machine with 4 NICs. I put 2 NICs on a separate VLAN from the rest of the network, together with the NAS-es that serve iSCSI. Would it be a good idea to bond the other 2 so that the VMs get less congestion? Or should I do MPIO on each VM too?
     
  9. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    MPIO for iSCSI, teaming/bonding for VM traffic.

    I'm assuming you've got a managed switch connected to this then? You'll need to team/bond the ports on the switch for the VM traffic (& make them trunks) & stick the iSCSI ports in their own vlan as access ports
     
  10. Chicken76

    Chicken76 Minimodder

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    Yes I have a managed switch. I'll enable LACP on the ports for VM traffic, but why should I make them trunks?
     
  11. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    If you're using multiple vlans on your VM network then they need to be trunks (you'll also need a router but that's another matter)
     
  12. CraigWatson

    CraigWatson Level Chuck Norris

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    AFAIK you shouldn't need to trunk them on the switch, I've hooked up teamed NICs to non-trunked ports before and it's worked perfectly :)

    Also you can separate the VLANs on a vSwitch and get vSphere to do the routing :)

    Edit: a bit more detail. Enable VLAN tagging on your physical switch ports that the host is plugged into, then create a single vSwitch. From there, create two Virtual Machine Port Groups with the VLAN tag numbers you need, and attach the VMs to those port groups - vSphere will handle the VLAN tagging/untagging and effectively hand the VM an untagged port to its vNIC.
     
    Last edited: 1 Nov 2012
  13. Chicken76

    Chicken76 Minimodder

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    The bonded ports for VM traffic don't need to be part of multiple VLANs, so trunking shouldn't be necessary, right?

    Edit: Just a clarification: I don't use VLANs now, but when everything will be setup, I'm thinking of moving the NASes that handle iSCSI and the NICs that will handle iSCSI on the ESXi host to a separate VLAN to spare them of all the broadcast chatter from the main network.
     
    Last edited: 1 Nov 2012
  14. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    You don't need trunks if you're not running multiple vlan's out to an external network.

    I always have to as I'm running environments that need it, we have combinations of multiple customers running on one setup & things like IP phones running on virtualised PBX's so vlans are compulsory for us. Therefore I always do it on training labs etc I set up as I need my engineers to be able to work on our production setups (we have our vsphere training lab connected up to our Cisco lab)

    If it's a small flat setup then you'll be fine without vlans
     
  15. Chicken76

    Chicken76 Minimodder

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    It will be a small business setup. One ESXi host to start, running 1 Windows Server and 1 Linux Server. Storage will be on iSCSI exclusively.
     
  16. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    In that case make sure you've got a very good backup in place (at the esxi level).

    Personally I never use a single host on a site, always clusters.
     
  17. Chicken76

    Chicken76 Minimodder

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    What do you mean by "backup at ESXi level"? Backing up the .vmx vmdk etc.?
    Veeam is capable of this, isn't it? Is the ability to backup a running VM available in the free version?

    In the beginning there will be only one host, but others will follow.
     
  18. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    Veeam is exactly what I use for backups.
    For lab use there's a free full version, if not you have to pay for the good version.
    Vmware's own backup program you can install isn't too bad for free.
     
  19. Chicken76

    Chicken76 Minimodder

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    Is the limited free version available for commercial use? (haven't found this specified on their site)
     
  20. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    The free version only supports manual backup. To schedule them you need a paid for version
     

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