StoreVirtual Storage
1752777 Members
6310 Online
108789 Solutions
New Discussion

Network configuration with only 4 NICs

 
Roman Starun
Occasional Advisor

Network configuration with only 4 NICs

I have 3 HP Proliant servers DL360 with 4 nic interfaces each.  Planning to use Hyper-V servers 2012 R2 as hosts and HP VSA as shared storage for some of the VM's.

 

Solution needs 8 NIC's for best reliability and perfomance, but i have only 4. My plan is:

2 NICs for VSA and iSCSI. Using Hyper-v VSwitch i'll create two virtual NICS - VSA and iSCSI on each of two physical interfaces. VSA and iSCSI would be on separate VLANs, but on same physical NICs.

2 NICs for everything else (VM's LANs, management, migration) separated by VLANs.

 

Each server would be connected to two physical switches for redurancy.

 

Or should i use:

1 NIC for VSA

1 NIC for iscsi

1 NIC for VM's

1 NIC for migration?

Without redurancy on switch and ethernet ports level, but simpler. I could add network adapter later.

 

In first case should i use HP Network teaming to combine two physical NICs, or i should use any other technology?

What are the best practices both for 4 NIC's and for 8 NIC's cases. There is a network plan on page 16 of best practices guide http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA4-8440ENW.pdf but i'm not sure if i do understand figure 11 and figure 12 right.