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Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide
Introduction Plan the VxRail network VxRail Cluster Types VxRail feature-driven decision points VxRail hardware and switch selection decision points Prepare the data center to implement VxRail Plan the VxRail cluster implementation
Plan the VxRail cluster implementation
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
IP address considerations for VxRail networks VLAN considerations for VxRail networks
Plan network settings for VxRail management components
Plan network settings for VMware vCenter Server management network
Identify IP addresses for VxRail management components
Select hostnames for VxRail management components
Select a top-level domain Select a hostname for VxRail Manager Select the ESXi hostnames Select a hostname for the VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server
Identify external applications and settings for VxRail
Set the DNS for VxRail management components
Prepare the customer-managed VMware vCenter Server
Prepare a customer-managed virtual-distributed switch
Prepare LAG on a customer-managed virtual-distributed switch
Reserve IP addresses for VxRail-managed VMware vSphere vMotion network
Reserve IP addresses for VxRail vSAN network
Decide on VxRail logging solution
Assign passwords for VxRail management
Planning vSAN Witness Networking Planning VxRail Satellite Nodes Networking Configure the Network for VxRail Prepare to build the VxRail cluster VxRail network considerations after implementation Appendix A: VxRail Network Configuration Table Appendix B: VxRail Passwords Appendix C: VxRail cluster setup checklist Appendix D: VxRail Open Ports Requirements Appendix E: VMware VDS port group default settings Appendix F: Physical Network Switch Examples

Plan network settings for VxRail management components

Plan network settings for VxRail management components

  • During the initial build of the VxRail cluster, IP addresses that are entered are assigned to the VxRail components that are members of the External Management network and optionally, the VMware vCenter Server management network, and must follow certain rules:
    • The IP address scheme must be a public IP address range.
    • The IP address must be fixed (no DHCP).
    • The IP addresses cannot be in use.
    • The IP address range must all be in the same subnet.
    You have some flexibility in how the IP addresses are assigned to the VxRail management components. For the ESXi hosts:
    • You can manually assign the IP addresses to the ESXi hosts.
    • You can have the IP addresses auto-assigned during VxRail initial build.
    The decisions that you make on the final VxRail configuration that is planned for your data center impacts the number of IP addresses you must reserve.
    • Decide if you want to reserve additional IP addresses for VxRail management to assign to VxRail nodes in the future for expansion purposes in a single rack. When a new node is added to an existing VxRail cluster, it assigns an IP address from the unused reserve pool, or prompts you to enter an IP address manually if none are in reserve and unused.
    • Decide whether you are going to use the VMware vCenter Server instance that is deployed in the VxRail cluster or use an external VMware vCenter Server already operational in your data center.
      • If you use the VMware vCenter Server instance that is supplied by VxRail, you must reserve an IP address for VMware vCenter Server.
    • Decide if you are going to use VMware vSphere Log Insight that can be deployed in the VxRail cluster.
      • For VxRail version 7.0 and earlier, if you use the VMware vCenter Server instance that is deployed in the VxRail cluster, you have the option to deploy VMware vSphere Log Insight on the cluster. You can also choose to connect to an existing syslog server in your data center, or no logging at all. If you choose to deploy VMware vSphere Log Insight in the VxRail cluster, you must reserve one IP address.
      • VMware vRealize Log Insight is not an option for deployment during the initial VxRail configuration process starting with version 7.0.010.
      • If you use an external VMware vCenter Server already operational in your data center for VxRail, VMware vSphere Log Insight cannot be deployed.

    Use the following table to determine the number of public IP addresses required for external connectivity:

    Table 6. IP addresses required for external connectivity
    Component Condition
    VxRail Node One per VxRail Node
    VxRail Manager One
    VMware vCenter Server
    • If you are supplying VMware vCenter Server for VxRail: 0
    • If VxRail is supplying VMware vCenter Server: 1
    VMware vSphere Log Insight
    • If you are supplying VMware vCenter Server for VxRail: 0
    • If you are supplying a syslog server for VxRail: 0
    • If you will not enable logging for VxRail: 0
    • If you are using VMware vSphere Log Insight on VxRail: 1

    Request your networking team to reserve a subnet range that has sufficient open IP addresses to cover VxRail initial build and any planned future expansion.

    Table 7. Network configuration table
    Network configuration table Action
    Row 8 Enter the subnet mask for the VxRail External Management network.
    Row 9 Enter the default gateway for the VxRail External Management network.