For a successful deployment plan, you should consider the impact on your environment and how the deployment will integrate with the existing network infrastructure. This is another key point to keep in mind because it is strictly related to the hardware chosen for the server and the storage protocols used. Networking will be discussed in depth in Chapter 6, Advanced Network Management.
ESXi generates network traffic that must be controlled and sized to properly manage advanced features such as vMotion, FT, and VM traffic without congesting the network. The question could be how many NICs should I use?
The number of NICs supported by the server can heavily influence the network design and consequently, the overall host performance. If the server has only four slots available to accommodate the adapters and FC storage is used, the server needs to be equipped with at least two FC adapters to provide FT, taking precious slots intended for additional NICs.
Modern servers have several slots for the network adapters that may vary from 6 up to 12 or more. Often, the available budget for the hardware makes the difference.
Depending on the design of your ESXi server, general guidelines you might consider when defining the number of NICs to use are the following:
- ESXi management network: One NIC is required; two would be better for redundancy.
- vMotion: At least one NIC and due, to the amount of data involved during a vMotion process, a Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) must be used. More NICs can provide, more bandwidth, with the right configuration
- vSphere FT: It requires at least 1 GbE NIC but, depending on how many vCPU and FT enabled VMs are configured, a 10 GbE NIC could be a better choice. A second NIC is recommended for redundancy.
- Storage: Except for FC, which uses different adapters, NFS or iSCSI storage protocols need at least 1 GbE or, better, 10 GbE. Also, for this configuration, more NICs are recommended for redundancy and performance.
- VM traffic: To better distribute and balance the load, two or more GbE NICs are recommended.
If your server doesn't have enough slots for additional NICs, vMotion and ESXi Management traffic can be combined and the two NICs can handle both traffic.
When you have defined the server and the number of NICs you need for your design, the ESXi installation plan raises a new question—how should I install ESXi?