Network Design for vSAN for the Management
Domain
In the network design for vSAN in the management domain, you
determine the network configuration for vSAN traffic.
Consider the overall traffic bandwidth and
decide how to isolate storage traffic.
- Consider how much vSAN data traffic is running between ESXi hosts.
- The amount of storage traffic depends on the number of VMs that are running in the cluster, and on how write- intensive the I/O process is for the applications running in the VMs.
For information on the physical network setup for
vSAN traffic, and other system traffic, see Physical Network Infrastructure Design for NSX-T Data Center for the Management Domain.
For information on the virtual network setup for
vSAN traffic, and other system traffic, see Distributed Port Group and VMkernel Adapter Design for the Management Domain.
vSAN Network Design
The vSAN network design includes these
components.
Design Component | Description |
|---|---|
Physical NIC speed | For
best and most predictable performance (IOPS) for the
environment, this design uses a minimum of a 10-GbE connection,
with 25-GbE recommended, for use with vSAN all-flash
configurations. |
VMkernel network adapters for vSAN | The
vSAN VMkernel network adapter on each ESXi host is created when
you enable vSAN on the cluster. Connect the vSAN VMkernel
network adapters on all ESXi hosts in a cluster to a dedicated
distributed port group including also ESXi hosts that are not
contributing storage resources to the cluster. |
VLAN | All
storage traffic should be isolated on its own VLAN. When a
design uses multiple vSAN clusters, each cluster should use a
dedicated VLAN or segment for its traffic. This approach
increases security, prevents interference between clusters and
helps with troubleshooting cluster configuration. |
Jumbo frames | vSAN
traffic can be handled by using jumbo frames. Use jumbo frames
for vSAN traffic only if the physical environment is already
configured to support them, they are part of the existing
design, or if the underlying configuration does not create a
significant amount of added complexity to the
design. |
Decision
ID | Design
Decision | Design
Justification | Design
Implication |
|---|---|---|---|
VCF-MGMT-VSAN-NET-001 | Use the existing
vSphere Distributed Switch instances in the default management
cluster. | Provides
guaranteed performance for vSAN traffic in a connection-free
network by using existing networking components. | All traffic paths
are shared over common uplinks. |
VCF-MGMT-VSAN-NET-002 | Configure jumbo
frames on the VLAN for vSAN traffic. |
| Every device in
the network must support jumbo frames. |