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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 Preparing 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 customer-supplied vCenter server
Prepare 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 Configuring the Network for VxRail Preparing to Build the VxRail Cluster VxRail Network Considerations After Implementation

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.

    An NTP server is not required but is recommended. If you provide an NTP server, vCenter server will be configured to use it. If you do not provide at least one NTP server, VxRail uses the time that is set on ESXi host #1 (regardless of whether the time is correct or not).

    Starting with VxRail version 7.0.400, outside services such as the services offered by pool.ntp.org or similar websites are supported.

    Note: Ensure that the NTP hostname or IP address is accessible from the VxRail External Management Network that the VxRail nodes will be connected to and that it 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.

    Starting with VxRail version 7.0.010, you can either use an internal DNS included with VxRail vCenter Server, or you can use 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.

    Lookup records must be created in your selected DNS for every VxRail management component you are deploying in the cluster and are assigning 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.

    Figure 51.    Sample DNS Forward Lookup Entries

    Figure 52.    Sample DNS Reverse Lookup Entries

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