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.
The data center services to implement are:
Figure 6. Connecting data center services with VxRail cluster
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 (for VxRail management and for end-user access) must be passed to the upstream network. Other VxRail networks can stay isolated on the adjoining network switches.
A best practice is to reserve a set of Virtual LAN (VLAN) IDs in your data center network that are assigned to support the VxRail networks. This practice is especially important for production workloads. All these reserved VLANs must be configured on the adjoining physical switches that are 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. Configure more networks (such as networks required for end-user access) 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 pass upstream must be configured on adjoining network switch uplinks. Configure them on the ports on the upstream network devices, so they can pass through upstream to Layer 2 or Layer 3. If Layer 3 services are enabled on the adjacent physical switches, configure the VLANs that must pass upstream to terminate at this layer. Then, configure routing services for these networks to pass upstream.