HPE SimpliVity vSwitch teaming settings

[jlangmead]

Hi

Can I ask a quick question on post deployment vSwtich configuration please.

Once the Deployment Manager has completed successfully and the SimpliVity nodes are deployed, I next want to add additional vmnics to the vSwitches for resilience. What is the correct teaming a failover config for the different ports groups created during the installation?

One vSwitch0 I have two port groups created following the installation - 'Management Network' which contains the management vmk0 for the SimpliVity hosts and 'VM Network' which contains the OVC vm. The guide says I should then add a second vmnic to the vSwitch and ensure both adapters are active, however it doesn't say if I then need to 'override' this within either or both the portgroups. Typically the 'Management Network' portgroup (containing vmk0) would need to be set to Active\Standby for traditional ESXi hosts - does this not also apply to SimpliVity hosts?

Does the OVC management network just use active\active for management as it is effectively just a vm?

For vSwitch1 things are a little clearer (I think!) as I understand it's a simple case of:

if there are only two SimpliVity nodes using Direct Connect then all three portgroups created on vSwitch1 should be set to Active\Standby.

If the SimpliVity nodes are connected via an Ethernet switch then all three portgroups on vSwitch1 should be set to Active\Active.     Is this correct?

many thanks in advance

[DaveOb · Accepted solution]

There is no special configuration around vmk0 needing to be set ot Active/Standby  the vmkernel will not attempt to traffic shape so typically when the ESXi powers on it will land on an active uplink and stick with it until the host is rebooted or the nic is detected as faulty.setting it to active/standby does not give any benifit.

For direct connect the vswitch1 must be set in active/standby,care must be taken on cabling that the nics are not crossed ie VMnic 0 is the active nic on both ESXi.

For switched vswich1 configurations then they can be set to active/active 

If you are using LACP/Etherchannel then the relevant VMware doc must be followed.