Networking And Connectivity - 13G Servers - Dell EMC VxFlex Ready Node User Manual

Networking and connectivity - 13G servers

Networking connectivity architecture and cabling best practice
Management ESXi—1 or 10/25 GbE network
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Management SVM—1 or 10/25 GbE network
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Management BMC (iDRAC)—1 or 10 GbE network
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Data A—10/25/100 GbE network
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Data B—10/25/100 GbE network
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During deployment, the ESXi image is configured to accept all VLANs by using the
VLAN ID 4095 in the ESXi port group. During the Set IP addresses phase, the
requested VLAN ID is set in the relevant Port group or vmkernel on the ESXi or the
BMC (iDRAC) port using IPMI related commands.
Note: 25 and 100 GbE speeds are only supported on 14G platforms.
This section explains network connectivity, cabling best practices, and the most
common port configurations for 13G VxFlex Ready Node servers.
This topic describes connectivity architecture, cabling best practice information, and
cable connection examples from typical VxFlex Ready Node configurations in order to
help you plan your network. Where possible, it is recommended that you use dedicated
network adapters for VxFlex OS traffic. However, shared network adapters are fully
supported, and might be mandatory in hyper-converged environments.
Note: If you are not familiar with VxFlex Ready Node system architecture, refer to
the "System" section in this document.
On ESXi servers, VLANs can be used as long as the broadcast domain is the same
between the AMS/Discovery Server and the ESXi management port. For all OS types,
the best way to use VLANs with VxFlex Ready Node is to configure the switch port to
Mode Access, and assign it to one VLAN. A management switch that has only one use
is recommended. Usually, this implies one IP subnet, but the switch can contain
several subnets on a single VLAN.
When using several VLANs on the same port, the port must to be configured as Trunk,
and you must assign a VLAN ID on each vSwitch on the ESXi. This configuration can
be performed on a VxFlex Ready Node server after deployment is complete by
updating the VM network and relevant VMKernel port to use the VLAN ID set by the
switch manager. This is similar to any other VLAN implementation, and it must be
performed after deployment because the AMS deployment flow creates and
configures the vSwitches and vmnics as part of the deployment flow.
Note: AMS uses APIPA IP addresses (169.254.x.x/16) for Broadcast and Unicast,
and this requires special configuration during deployment.
It is mandatory to set the Management VLAN as either a Layer 2 VLAN without an IP
address, or as VLAN 0 (meaning, no VLAN). This will facilitate a seamless onsite "Add
Node" operation.
The following figures show how to connect cables to single-node servers in a system
consisting of only single-node servers. Data is connected to two switches, for high
availability, via the nodes' 10 GbE ports. Management interfaces are connected to a
switch on a separate management network using 1 GbE and iDRAC ports.
The AMS/Discovery server must be on the same Layer 2 network as the management
ports. This allows the use of the broadcast protocol for initial IP address configuration.
Dell EMC VxFlex Ready Node AMS User Guide
Architecture
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