Razorhog

Here is my beginning diagram.

VLAN 1 is the production VLAN. Isn't that the default setting? This network was already in place when I was hired, and only had the default VLAN. Does it really matter that VLAN 1 is the production VLAN? I plan on trying to map it out soon. Diagrams help, and all I've been able to find are generic diagrams in the setup documents.

I was under the impression that different subnets could be used, rather than VLANs - am I wrong or do you have to do both? Well I like the idea of putting the iSCSI traffic on a different switch/switches. All of the switches in my network are HP, maybe a couple 24 port 2810's would work. At this point I'm confused as to how the VM's will be visible to my LAN. Excellent advice, thank you.

First off, thank you for the reply! I think there is a bit of confusion about the core switch. I already have the 5308XL; it just doesn't have a copper gigabit module in it yet. It is currently the core for my network (fiber modules connect campuses/buildings), and I'm not sure if putting a gig copper module in it for the ESXi servers/SAN is the right way to go about this project. Maybe getting a new separate gig switch would be better? I would only be putting in 1 14 copper port module, would that even be enough? If each server has 6 NIC ports, that would eat up 12 right there. I might need two modules... The following diagram is taken from Blue Gears: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/36691 pNIC0 -> vSwitch0 -> Portgroup0 (VMKernel VMotion) pNIC1 -> vSwitch0 -> Portgroup0 (VMKernel VMotion) pNIC2 -> vSwitch1 -> Portgroup1 (VMKernel iSCSI) pNIC3 -> vSwitch1 -> Portgroup1 (VMKernel iSCSI) pNIC4 -> vSwitch2 -> Portgroup2 (VM Network) pNIC5 -> vSwitch2 -> Portgroup2 (VM Network) I'm still kind of fuzzy on the whole Portgroup thing, but I'm getting there. Each vSwitch will assign a VLan tag. The corresponding ports on the 5308XL will allow that VLAN traffic. Is that correct? If so, I don't understand what happens to the traffic after that - how does it get to the SAN? Another option - with the MD3000i, it looks like I might be able to simply connect the two servers directly. You can cable from the Ethernet ports of your host servers directly to your MD3000i RAID controller iSCSI ports. Direct attachments support single path configurations (for up to four servers) and dual path data configurations (for up to two servers) for both single and dual controller modules. Thanks for any help/suggestions. This stuff is fun but complicated...

Hello all - I am the network admin for a public school. I'm going virtual with my servers, and could use some help - especially with the LAN configuration. I am getting 2 servers (Dell R710, dual Xeon 5520's, and 48gb ram) and an MD3000i SAN (15 146gb 15k rpm SAS drives). VMWare Infrastructure Enterprise edition, Virtual Center Foundation. I don't have a gigabit switch, but plan on getting a gigabit copper module for my HP Procurve 5308XL. That switch is the core switch for the entire district. Would putting that module in the 5308XL and using it for iSCSI connections be OK? I know you should have 2 switches for redundancy, but I figure if the core switch goes down, everything goes down regardless. If that would be ok, do all of the iSCSI connections need to be on a separate subnet and have a vswitch handle VLANS? Or are the VLANS handled by the 5308XL? I have a lot of questions and things I need to get straight in my mind. Any help would greatly be appreciated. I'm a bit scatterbrained right now, so please let me know if you need more information about anything. None of this equipment has been ordered, so I can make modifications as needed. Thanks!