For VxRail versions prior to 7.0.010, VxRail nodes ordered with extra physical network ports can be configured for non-VxRail system traffic. For instance, if you are planning to enable certain vSphere features such as fault tolerance, then plan to need additional node ports for this purpose.

Starting with version 7.0.010 of VxRail, you can configure the ports on the optional PCIe adapter cards to support VxRail network traffic. Unless you are deploying the VxRail cluster to a customer-supplied virtual distributed switch, this is only supported as a post-deployment activity.

Figure 43.          VxRail node with NDC ports and ports from optional PCIe adapter card

Network redundancy across NDC and PCIe Ethernet ports can be enabled by reconfiguring the VxRail networks and migrating selected VxRail network traffic from the original NDC-based ports over to PCIe-based ports. The following table describes the supported starting and ending network reconfigurations.

The following rules apply for migrating VxRail networks from NDC-only ports to mixed NDC-PCIe ports:

• The VxRail version on your cluster is 7.0.010 or later.
• The first port configured for VxRail networking, commonly known as ‘vmnic0’ or ‘vmnic1’, must be reserved for VxRail management and node discovery. Do not migrate VxRail management or node discovery off of this first reserved port.
• The switch ports enabling connectivity to the PCIe-based ports are properly configured to support VxRail network traffic.
• All of the network ports supporting VxRail network traffic must be running the same speed.
• The network reconfiguration requires a one-to-one swap. For example, a VxRail network that is currently running on two NDC ports can be reconfigured to run on one NDC port and one PCIe port.

Note: You must follow the official instructions/procedures from VMware and Dell Technologies for these operations.

The supported operations include:

• Create a new vSphere Standard Switch (VSS), and connect unused ports to the VSS.
• Connect unused ports to new port groups on the default vSphere Distributed Switch.
• Create a new vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS), add VxRail nodes to the new VDS, and connect their unused network ports to the VDS.
• Create new VMKernel adapters, and enable services of IP Storage and vSphere Replication.
• Create new VM Networks, and assign them to new port groups.

The following operations are unsupported in versions earlier than VxRail 7.0.010:

• Migrating or moving VxRail system traffic to the optional ports. VxRail system traffic includes the management, vSAN, vCenter Server, and vMotion Networks.
• Migrating VxRail system traffic to other port groups.
• Migrating VxRail system traffic to another VDS.

Note: Performing any unsupported operations will impact the stability and operations of the VxRail cluster, and may cause a failure in the VxRail cluster.