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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 data center for VxRail implementation
Introduction
Prepare data center routing services
Prepare for multi-rack VxRail cluster
Prepare for vSAN HCI mesh topology
Prepare external FC storage for dynamic clusters
Prepare for VxRail custom uplink assignments
Prepare data center network MTU
Prepare for link aggregation of VxRail networks
Plan link aggregation on switch port pairs
Prepare certificate authority server for VxRail
Prepare VxRail remote support connectivity
Identify isolation IP addresses for vSphere High Availability
Planning the VxRail cluster implementation Planning for VxRail satellite nodes Configure the network for VxRail Preparing 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: Virtual Distributed Switch Portgroup Default Settings Appendix F: Physical Network Switch Examples

Prepare for vSAN HCI mesh topology

Prepare for vSAN HCI mesh topology

  • This section is relevant only in situations for sharing vSAN datastore resources over the network. This section can be skipped if this is not in your plans.

    With an HCI Mesh topology, the local vSAN datastore on a VxRail cluster can be shared with other VxRail clusters. This storage sharing model is applicable only in a multi-cluster environment where the VxRail clusters are configured under a common data center object on a common vCenter instance.

    With a vSAN HCI Mesh network in place, VxRail cluster that leverage a local vSAN datastore for primary storage can also leverage the capacity on a remote vSAN datastore for application workload. If dynamic clusters will be part of the vSAN HCI mesh network, they can mount a remote vSAN datastore on a cluster with free vSAN storage capacity and use that as their primary storage resource.

    Figure 38.    Storage resource sharing between VxRail clusters with vSAN HCI mesh

    If your plans include sharing storage resources between clusters in a vSAN HCI mesh, be sure to prepare your data center to meet the following prerequisites:

    • A vCenter instance at a version that supports VxRail version 7.0.100 or later.
    • A vSAN Enterprise license for each VxRail cluster that will participate in a vSAN HCI mesh topology.

    Figure 39.    Storage resource sharing between a cluster with a local vSAN datastore and dynamic clusters

    If your plans include sharing the vSAN resources of a VxRail cluster with one or more VxRail dynamic clusters, you must adhere to the following pre-requisites:

    • A vCenter instance at a version that supports VxRail version 7.0.240 or later.
    • A vSAN Enterprise license is needed only for the VxRail cluster that is sharing its vSAN storage resources. This license is not needed on a dynamic cluster.

    Figure 40.    Enable vSAN network connectivity between clusters

    To enable vSAN HCI mesh, the data center must have a network topology that can enable connectivity of the vSAN networks on the two participating VxRail clusters.

    • Two Ethernet ports on each node in the cluster will be configured to support vSAN network traffic.
    • A common VLAN can be assigned to this vSAN network on each cluster so they can connect over a Layer 2 network. If the VxRail clusters are deployed against different top-of-rack switches, the VLAN must be configured to stretch between the switch instances.
    • If the VxRail clusters are deployed against different top-of-rack switches, or if the common VLAN cannot be stretched between the switch instances, connectivity can be enabled using Layer 3 routing services. If this option is selected, be sure to assign routable IP addresses to the vSAN network on each participating VxRail cluster.