You can skip this section if your VxRail version is not 7.0.010 or later, or if you do not plan to deploy VxRail against one or more customer-supplied virtual distributed switch.

Before VxRail version 7.0.010, if you chose to deploy the VxRail cluster on an external, customer-supplied vCenter, a virtual distributed switch would be configured on the vCenter instance as part of the initial cluster build process. The automated initial build process would deploy the virtual distributed switch adhering to VxRail requirements in the vCenter instance, and then attach the VxRail networks to the portgroups on the virtual distributed switch. Depending on the target version planned for your VxRail cluster, you can decide to preconfigure one or two virtual distributed switches on your external vCenter instance to support VxRail networking.

• Starting with VxRail version 7.0.010, you have the choice of configuring a single virtual distributed switch to the external vCenter before the initial cluster build process.
• Starting with VxRail version 7.0.130, you have the choice of configuring one or two virtual distributed switches to the external vCenter instance before the initial cluster build process.

If you choose to manually configure the virtual switches and configure the network before initial cluster build, you must perform the following prerequisites:

• Unless your data center already has a vCenter instance compatible with VxRail, deploy a vCenter instance that will serve as the target for the VxRail cluster.
• You can deploy the VxRail cluster to an existing virtual distributed switch or a pair of virtual distributed switches on the target vCenter instance.
• Configure a portgroup for each of the required VxRail networks. Dell Technologies recommends using naming standards that clearly identify the VxRail network traffic type. 
• Configure the VLAN assigned to each required VxRail network on the respective portgroup. The VLANs for each VxRail network traffic type can be referenced in the ‘VxRail Networks’ section in Appendix A: VxRail Network Configuration Table.
• Configure two or four uplinks on the virtual distributed switch or pair of virtual distributed switches to support the VxRail cluster.
• Configure the teaming and failover policies for the distributed port groups. Each port group is assigned a teaming and failover policy. You can choose a simple strategy and configure a single policy that is applied to all port groups, or configure a set of policies to address requirements at the port group level.
• If you plan to enable load balancing with LACP against any non-management VxRail networks, configure the LACP policy on the virtual distributed switch, and apply the policy to the appropriate portgroup or portgroups. 

Figure 35.          Sample portgroups on customer-supplied virtual distributed switch

Dell Technologies recommends referencing the configuration settings applied to the virtual distributed switch by the automated VxRail initial build process as a baseline. This ensures a successful deployment of a VxRail cluster against the customer-supplied virtual distributed switch. The settings used by the automated initial build process can be found in Appendix E: Virtual Distributed Switch Portgroup Default Settings.

If your plan is to have more than one VxRail cluster deployed against a single customer-supplied virtual distributed switch, Dell Technologies recommends establishing a distinctive naming standard for the distributed port groups. This will ease network management and help distinguish the individual VxRail networks among multiple VxRail clusters.

Configuring portgroups on the virtual distributed switch for any guest networks you want to have is not required for the VxRail initial build process. These portgroups can be configured after the VxRail initial build process is complete. Dell Technologies also recommends establishing a distinctive naming standard for these distributed port groups.

Configure teaming and failover policies for customer-supplied virtual distributed switch

For a customer-supplied virtual distributed switch, you can use the default teaming and failover policy for VxRail, or customize teaming and failover policies for each portgroup. The default teaming and failover policy for VxRail is described in Configure teaming and failover policies for VxRail networks.

Figure 36.          Sample VxRail default teaming and failover policy

Customizing the teaming and failover policies can also be performed as a post-deployment operation instead of as a prerequisite.

Prepare link aggregation on customer-supplied virtual distributed switch

You can skip this section if your VxRail version is not 7.0.130 or later, and you do not plan to enable link aggregation against one or more VxRail networks on the customer-supplied virtual distributed switch.

Starting with VxRail version 7.0.130, you can configure link aggregation against the VxRail non-management networks, which include the vSAN network and vMotion network. The following pre-requisites must be met to enable link aggregation on the VxRail non-management networks:

• Four ports from each VxRail node must be configured to support VxRail networking.

• Two ports will be configured to support VxRail management networks. Link aggregation is not supported on these networks.
• Two ports will be configured to support VxRail non-management networks. Link aggregation is supported on these networks.

• Link aggregation can be configured on the vSAN network, vMotion network, or both.

• If link aggregation is not to be configured on the vMotion network, this network must be assigned to the same uplinks supporting the VxRail management networks.

• The adjacent top-of-rack switches must be configured to support link aggregation. See the guides provided by your switch vendor to perform this task.

The following tasks must be completed on the virtual distributed switch on your customer-supplied vCenter instance to support link aggregation:

• Configure an LACP policy on the virtual distributed switch

Figure 37.          Sample LACP policy configured on virtual distributed switch

• Configure the teaming and failover policy on the portgroup(s) targeted for link aggregation.

Figure 38.          Sample LACP Policy configured as active uplink in teaming and failover policy