A typical implementation uses one or more 10 GbE Top-of-Rack (ToR) switches to connect to each node in a VxRail Cluster. For smaller environments, 1 GbE switches may also be used. While the customer typically provides the ToR switches, Dell Technologies offers Ethernet switches for management. Two ToR switches are used for redundancy, but single-switch implementations are also supported. The following figure shows typical network connectivity.
![VxRail networking](/static/media/9198938f-8c47-5a0e-82d9-6db6a62cd3f7/DAM-fed21e53-11fe-423d-bd0a-8daaf0866a6b/out/vxrail-networking=GUID-27A8F902-D783-43BE-B26B-A16DDD83E128=1=en-us=Low.png)
There are four types of network traffic in a VxRail cluster:
- VxRail management—management traffic is used to connect to the VxRail Manager plug-in on vCenter, for other management interfaces, and for communication between the management components and the ESXi nodes in the cluster. Either the default VLAN or a specific management VLAN is used for management traffic.
- vSAN—Data access for read and write activity, as well as for optimization and data rebuild, is performed over the vSAN network. Low network latency is critical for this traffic, and a specific VLAN isolates this traffic.
- vMotion—VMware vSphere vMotion allows VM mobility between nodes. A separate VLAN is used to isolate this traffic.
- Virtual machine—Users access VMs and the services provided over one or more VM networks. At least one VM VLAN is configured when the system is initially configured, and others may be defined as required.