Broadcom NetXtreme Ports | Hyper-V External Switches

[DoJu]

Hi All,

What is the HPE guidance / best practice / correct way to configure Hyper-V External VMSwitches for PCIe Slot 15 Port 1-4 on a HPE Ethernet 1Gb 4-port 331T Adapter?

Example:

HPE Proliant DL380 Gen11
OS: Windows Server 2022

Get-NetAdapter
Name InterfaceDescription ifIndex Status
---- -------------------- ------- ------
PCIe Slot 15 Port 1 Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet 11 Up
PCIe Slot 15 Port 2 Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet #2 8 Up
PCIe Slot 15 Port 3 Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet #3 9 Up
PCIe Slot 15 Port 4 Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet #4 6 Up
vEthernet (Hyper V Swi... Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter 2 Up

Configure the PCIe Slot 15 Port 1 Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet as a normal physical NIC
Assign TCP/IP configuration as normal
No need to create a Hyper-V "Management OS" VMSwitch and "Allow management operating system to share this network adapter"

Or should this be:

Create New VMSwitch for the Hyper-V Host Management OS
New-VMSwitch -Name "Management OS" -NetAdapterName "PCIe Slot 15 Port 1" -AllowManagementOS $true
We set "Allow management operating system to share this network adapter" as this virtual switch is dedicated to management traffic.
The Hyper-V host should have access to this adapter for administrative purposes.

https://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/the-hyper-v-virtual-switch-explained-part-1/

Remaining NIC ports for VM traffic using SET (Switch Embedded Team):

PCIe Slot 15 Port 2
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet#2
PCIe Slot 15 Port 3
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet3
PCIe Slot 15 Port 4
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet#4

Create a NewVMSwtich Switch Embedded Teaming (SET)
New-VMSwitch -Name "SET-Team" -NetAdapterName "PCIe Slot 15 Port 2","PCIe Slot 15 Port 3","PCIe Slot 15 Port 4" -EnableEmbeddedTeaming $true -AllowManagementOS $false
Set-VMSwitchTeam -Name "SET-Team" -LoadBalancingAlgorithm Dynamic
Get-VMSwitchTeam -Name "SET-Team" | FL
Get-VMSwitch

The SET-TEAM VMSwitch is used by the VMs for VM traffic,as it is best practice to isolate VM traffic from management traffic.
We dont "Allow the management OS to share this network adapter" as it can lead to resource contention and degraded performance for both the VMs and the management OS.

Distribution Modes

We have a choice of 2 LB distribution modes for SET Teams

Hyper-V Port
Dynamic

We use Dynamic as "Hyper-V port mode is not the best if you are only hosting a few VMs due to it not being granular enough to achieve a well-balanced distribution"

Thank you

[Suman_1978]

Hi,

I think Micorosft should be able to answer your question.

Meanwhile, please check if HPE Ethernet 1Gb 4-port 331T is compatible with this server and Hyper-V.

Some resources:
https://community.hpe.com/t5/servers-general/hyper-v-network-switch-configoraion-win-server-2022/td-p/7193452
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/get-started/create-a-virtual-switch-for-hyper-v-virtual-machines?tabs=hyper-v-manager
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/connect-to-network

Thank You!
I work with HPE but opinions expressed here are mine.

[support_s]

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[DoJu · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the replies.

I have opted for the following solution.

Create New VMSwitch for the Hyper-V Host Management OS
New-VMSwitch -Name "Management OS" -NetAdapterName "PCIe Slot 15 Port 1" -AllowManagementOS $true
We set "Allow management operating system to share this network adapter" as this virtual switch is dedicated to management traffic.
The Hyper-V host should have access to this adapter for administrative purposes.

Remaining NIC ports for VM traffic using SET (Switch Embedded Team):

Create a NewVMSwtich Switch Embedded Teaming (SET)
New-VMSwitch -Name "SET-Team" -NetAdapterName "PCIe Slot 15 Port 2","PCIe Slot 15 Port 3","PCIe Slot 15 Port 4" -EnableEmbeddedTeaming $true -AllowManagementOS $false
Set-VMSwitchTeam -Name "SET-Team" -LoadBalancingAlgorithm Dynamic
Get-VMSwitchTeam -Name "SET-Team" | FL
Get-VMSwitch

The SET-TEAM VMSwitch is used by the VMs for VM traffic,as it is best practice to isolate VM traffic from management traffic.
We dont "Allow the management OS to share this network adapter" as it can lead to resource contention and degraded performance for both the VMs and the management OS.

[Sunitha_Mod]

Hello @DoJu,

Perfect! 

We are glad to know you were able to find the solution and thank you for keeping us updated.