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Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide
Introduction Planning Your Data Center Network for VxRail VxRail Cluster Types VxRail Feature-Driven Decision Points VxRail Hardware and Switch Selection Decision Points Prepare the Data Center for VxRail Implementation Planning the VxRail Cluster Implementation
Introduction
Decide on VxRail single point of management
Decide on VxRail network traffic segmentation
Decide on teaming and failover policies for VxRail networks
Plan the VxRail logical network
Plan network settings for VxRail management components
Plan network settings for vCenter Server management network
Identify IP addresses for VxRail management components
Select hostnames for VxRail management components
Identify external applications and settings for VxRail
Prepare the customer-supplied vCenter server
Prepare the customer-supplied virtual-distributed switch
Reserve IP addresses for VxRail vMotion network
Reserve IP addresses for VxRail vSAN network
Decide on VxRail logging solution
Assign passwords for VxRail management
Prepare for Dell SmartFabric Services enablement
Planning for VxRail Satellite Nodes Configure the Network for VxRail Configure the Network for VxRail VxRail Network Considerations After Implementation VxRail Network Configuration Table VxRail Passwords VxRail Cluster Setup Checklist VxRail Open Ports Requirements Virtual Distributed Switch Port Group Default Settings Physical Network Switch Examples

Identify external applications and settings for VxRail

Identify external applications and settings for VxRail

  • VxRail depends specific applications in your data center to be available over your data center network. These data center applications must be accessible to the VxRail management network.

    Set time zone and NTP server

    A time zone is required. It is configured on vCenter server and each ESXi host during VxRail initial configuration.

    Dell Technologies recommends that you provide an NTP server but it is not required. If you provide an NTP server, vCenter server is configured to use it. If you do not provide at least one NTP server, VxRail uses the time that is set on ESXi host number 1. This time is set regardless of whether it is correct.

    Note: Ensure that the NTP IP address is accessible from the VxRail External Management Network to which the VxRail nodes connect and is functioning properly.

    Network configuration table row 12

    		Enter your time zone.

    Network configuration table row 13

    		Enter the hostnames or IP addresses of your NTP servers.

    Set DNS for VxRail management components

    Starting with VxRail version 7.0.010, you can either use an internal DNS included with VxRail vCenter Server or an external DNS in your data center. If you choose to use the internal DNS method, the steps to set up DNS as outlined in this section can be skipped.

    If the internal DNS option is not selected, one or more external, customer-supplied DNS servers are required for VxRail. The DNS server that you select for VxRail must be able to support naming services for all the VxRail management components (VxRail Manager, vCenter, and so on).

    Note: Ensure that the DNS IP address is accessible from the network to which VxRail Manager is connected and is functioning properly.

    Network configuration table row 14

    		Enter the IP addresses for your DNS servers.

    Create lookup records in your selected DNS for every VxRail management component that you deploy in the cluster and assign a hostname and IP address. These components can include VxRail Manager, VxRail vCenter Server, VxRail Platform Service Controller, Log Insight, and each ESXi host in the VxRail cluster. The DNS entries must support both forward and reverse lookups.

    Graphical user interfaceDescription automatically generated with medium confidence

    Figure 47.    Example DNS forward lookup entries

    Graphical user interface, text, applicationDescription automatically generated

    Figure 48.    Example DNS reverse lookup entries

    Use Appendix A: VxRail Network Configuration Table to determine which VxRail management components to include in your planned VxRail cluster. Ensure that you have assigned a hostname and IP address. vMotion and vSAN IP addresses do not require hostnames, so no entries are required in the DNS server.