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Peter
Asked: 2013-12-08 05:21:21 +0800 CST

Can I run vMotion traffic over iSCSI network ESXi 5.5

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Is there anything wrong with using one vmkernel in a multipathed iSCSI setup for vMotion traffic as well as iSCSI?

I have iSCSI storage setup using 2 vmkernels for MPIO. I'd like to use one of those kernels for vMotion traffic because the iSCSI traffic is already isolated from the rest of the network. Is this a horrible idea?

networking

2 Answers

  1. Yes. It's a bad idea. Use another port group for your vmotion traffic.

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  2. Best Answer

    ESXi is very sensitive to storage connectivity and any connectivity problems to its storage can cause all sorts of problems. If you have low utilization on your iSCSI network then you could probably get away with it.

    But if you have a good load on the iSCSI network and you start adding the additional traffic from vMotion, you are subject to do two things: First you could cause noticeable performance problems for your VMs. Second, if you bottleneck your iSCSI network bad enough, you could lock up the management agents on your ESXi hosts. And if this happens, you may find your only recourse to be forcibly rebooting the hosts.

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