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Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide
Introduction Planning Your Data Center Network for VxRail
Introduction
VxRail hardware and the physical network infrastructure
VxRail clusters and nodes
Network switch
Data center network
VxRail networking port options
VxRail Ethernet adapter options
VxRail Fibre Channel adapter options
VxRail RoCE adapter options
VxRail node connectivity options
VxRail networking rules and restrictions
Topology and connections
VxRail Cluster Types VxRail Feature-Driven Decision Points VxRail Hardware and Switch Selection Decision Points Preparing Data Center for VxRail Implementation Planning the VxRail Cluster Implementation Planning for VxRail Satellite Nodes Configuring the Network for VxRail Preparing to Build the VxRail Cluster VxRail Network Considerations After Implementation

Data center network

Data center network

  • VxRail is dependent of specific data center services to implement the cluster and for day-to-day operations. The top-of-rack switches must be configured to the upstream network to enable connectivity to these data center services, and to enable connectivity to the end-user community.

    Data center services

    • Domain Naming Services (DNS) is required to deploy the VxRail cluster and for ongoing operations. You can choose a DNS service internal to VxRail or use a DNS service in your data center.
    • VxRail cluster depends on Network Time Protocol (NTP) to keep the clock settings on the various VxRail components synchronized. Dell Technologies recommends using a reliable global timing service for VxRail.
    • Syslog service is supported with VxRail but is not required. 
    • VxRail depends on VMware vCenter for cluster management and operations. You can use either the embedded vCenter instance that is included with VxRail, or an external vCenter instance in your data center.

    Figure 6.        Connecting data center services with VxRail cluster

    Routing services

    VxRail cluster operations depend on a set of networks that run on both the virtual network inside the cluster and on the adjoining physical network switches. Some of these networks, specifically for VxRail management and for end-user access, must be passed to the upstream network, while other VxRail networks can stay isolated on the adjoining network switches.

    It is best practice to reserve a set of Virtual LAN (VLAN) IDs in your data center network that will be assigned to support the VxRail networks, especially for production workloads. All these reserved VLANs must be configured on the adjoining physical switches connected to the VxRail nodes. The VLANs cannot be configured as private VLANs.

    Certain VxRail management components must be able to connect to data center services   such as DNS and NTP. Routing services must be configured to enable connectivity to these services for these management components. Additional networks, such as those required for end-user access, must also be configured to support routing end-users and external applications to the virtual machines running on the VxRail cluster.

    If Layer 3 routing services are not configured on the adjacent physical switches, the VLANs that need to pass upstream must be configured on adjoining network switch uplinks. They must also be configured on the ports on the upstream network devices, so they can pass through upstream to Layer 2/Layer3 layer. If Layer 3 services are enabled on the adjacent physical switches, configure the VLANs that need to pass upstream to terminate at this layer, and configure routing services for these networks to pass upstream.