Managing ESXi on a dual-homed server

I am at a loss as how to provision ESXi to use two NICs on different networks in the same server.

I have a server with two NICs: an Intel 100 Pro and Intel 1000 Pro. I want to manage ESXi through the 100 Pro using network 192.168.0.0, and have the VMs (guest OSes) communicate only over the 1000 Pro using network 10.0.0.0.

I see both NICs in the ESXi Direct Console UI and in the VI Client GUI as vmnic0 and vmnic1. I can manage ESXi over vmnic0, but I've not been able to figure out how to provision vmnic1 as the 10.0.0.0 network and set up the VMs to use it exclusively. Has anyone provisioned this type of setup for ESXi before?

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dynamik

vswitches

JDMurray

Well, yes, but how to you configure the IP address of the second NIC?

dynamik

Are you using the VIC or are you just working at the machine locally?

HeroPsycho

JDMurray wrote: »

Well, yes, but how to you configure the IP address of the second NIC?

Think of physical NICs only as "uplink ports" for virtual switches. All networking in ESX/ESXi goes through virtual switches. Whether or not that virtual switch can connect to a physical network depends on if you connect a physical NIC to the vSwitch.

You never configure a physical NIC with an IP address. You configure things like a Kernel port in the case of ESXi or Service Console in ESX with IP addresses. In this case, you would have two vswitches, one for the Kernel port, the other for your VMs. You don't configure anything on the second vSwitch as far as IP addresses go. You just ensure that physical NIC assigned to the vSwitch is physically connected to the appropriate VLAN on the physical switch.

Keep in mind however that with only two NICs, this is likely a bad idea if a production box, as the VM's and the kernel port have no redundancy. It would be better to add another two NICs or a dual port NIC, and split them between the two vSwitches.

blargoe

That's right

All you have to do (if using the VI client) is Configuration - Networking - Add Networking and add a second network by creating another Virtual Machine port group (either on a new vSwitch or on the original vSwitch). Then add the vmnic1 to the new port group. No need for the host to have an IP on that network.

JDMurray

HeroPsycho wrote: »

You never configure a physical NIC with an IP address. You configure things like a Kernel port in the case of ESXi or Service Console in ESX with IP addresses. In this case, you would have two vswitches, one for the Kernel port, the other for your VMs. You don't configure anything on the second vSwitch as far as IP addresses go. You just ensure that physical NIC assigned to the vSwitch is physically connected to the appropriate VLAN on the physical switch.

Ah, OK, this is what I'm missing from my understanding. It's the VLAN on my physical switch that determines the network used. That's almost too simple to be true.

And no, this isn't a production box; it's purely experimental.

Thanks guys. More questions from me later, I'm sure...

jibbajabba

You could also simply use trunk ports on the physical switch and use vlans on the vswitches and / or use a dedicated nic for console (on a different speed) etc.

Two examples of mine :