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Note

The information on this page refers to standard 1:1 HA deployments of SBC SWe and does not apply to N:1 deployments. SBC SWe N:1 deployments on VMware are instantiated using the infrastructure as code (IaC) environment. For information on IaC, refer to Using the Ribbon IaC Environment to Deploy SBC SWe on VMware.

The vSwitch can route traffic internally between virtual machines and link to external networks. You can also configure a vSwitch to handle physical NIC failover. The vSwitch can be configured in the following scenarios:

Configuring vNetwork Standard Switch Without Physical NIC Redundancy

You must configure virtual network interface cards (vNICs) on the SBC SWe.  The SBC SWe is independent from mapping of physical interfaces to vSwitches. The recommended configuration is to have vNICs on the different vSwitches as shown below.

vNetwork Standard Switch Without Physical NIC Redundancy

Configure vSwitch in the following order:

  • First Ethernet interface for management (MGMT)
  • Second Ethernet interface for HA (HA)
  • Third and fourth Ethernet interface for Media (PKT0 and PKT1)

It is recommended to configure all four ports with different IP addresses in four different networks. For example:

  • MGMT-Network 1
  • HA-Network 2
  • PKT0-Network 3
  • PKT1-Network 4

To configure the vSwitch, perform the following steps:

Note

The figures shown in this procedure are intended as examples of the user interface and might not match the presented image exactly.

  1. Login as user root on VMware vSphere client.

    1. Enter VM Ware host machine IP Address.
    2. Enter your VMware vSphere administrator user name.
    3. Enter your VMware vSphere administrator password. 

    VMware VSphere Client Login

     

    The vSphere Client main window appears.
     

  2. Select the Host in VMware vSphere Client. Select Configuration.

    Adding Virtual Interface



  3. Select Networking tab and select Add Networking link as shown in the figure. Select Virtual Machine and click Next.

    Configuring vSwitch

     

    1. Add a New Virtual Interface and vSwitch0 (MGMT).

      1. Select Use vSwitch0. The vmnic0 is automatically selected. Make sure that the speed is showing 1000 Full for the selected vSwitch. It indicates physical port is up. Click Next.

        Selecting vSwitch0

      2. Enter Network Label. For example MGMT. Click Next and Finish.

        Entering Label

    2. Add a New Virtual Interface and new vSwitch1 (HA).

      1. Select Networking tab and select Add Networking link. Select Virtual Machine and click Next (see Figure Configuring vSwitch).

      2. Select Create a vSphere standard switch. Select vmnic1. Make sure that the speed is showing 1000 Full for the selected vSwitch. It indicates physical port is up. Click Next.

        Adding vSwitch 1

      3. Enter Network Label. For example HA. Click Next and Finish.

        Entering Network Label HA

    3. Add a new Virtual Interface and new vSwitch2 (PKT0).
      1. Select Networking tab and select Add Networking link. Select Virtual Machine and click Next (see Figure Configuring vSwitch).

      2. Select Create a vSphere standard switch. Select vmnic2. Make sure that the speed is showing 1000 Full for the selected vSwitch. It indicates physical port is up. Click Next.

        Selecting vmnic2

      3. Enter Network Label. For example PKT0. Click Next and Finish.

        Entering Network Label (PKT0)

    4. Add a new Virtual Interface and new vSwitch3 (PKT1).
      1. Select Networking tab and select Add Networking link. Select Virtual Machine and click Next (see Figure Configuring vSwitch).

      2. Select Create a vSphere standard switch. Select vmnic3. Make sure that the speed is showing 1000 Full for the selected vSwitch. It indicates physical port is up. Click Next.

        Selecting vmnic3

         

      3. Enter Network Label. For example PKT1. Click Next and Finish.

        Entering Network Label (PKT1)

         

        If the VLAN is used for packet ports (PKT 0 or PKT1), then the VLAN ID (optional) parameter must be selected as ALL (4095). This method is recommended and it is called as VGT (Virtual Guest tagging), where the guest OS takes care of VLAN tagging functionality. The VLAN can be used for either PKT0 or PKT1 or both. For non-VLAN configuration, use the default value 0.

        Configuring VLAN

         

        Configuring VLAN

    5. Verify that the added vSwitches are in proper order. Click Configuration tab and Networking.

      The switches and interfaces MUST be defined in this order:

      vSwitch0 - MGMT

      vSwitch1 - HA

      vSwitch2 - PKT0

      vSwitch3 - PKT1

      Verifying vSwitches

      Usage of vSwitch0 is not a mandatory requirement for MGMT0 interface. If server has more than 4 physical NIC ports, there is an option to assign MGMT label to vSwitch1, HA to vSwitch2, PKT0 to vSwitch3 and PKT1 to vSwitch4.

Configuring vNetwork Standard Switch With Physical NIC Redundancy

To protect the NIC failures, each vSwitch is configured with active and standby up-link adapters (physical NICs) using the NIC teaming feature of the VMware. To support this redundant configuration, ensure there is a minimum of eight physical NIC ports on the box. This configuration for high end system with full NIC protection as shown:

vNetwork Standard Switch With Physical NIC Redundancy

NIC Teaming Configuration

NIC teaming allows you to group two or more physical NICs into a single logical network device called a bond. Once a logical NIC is configured, the virtual machine is not aware of the underlying physical NICs. Packets sent to the logical NIC are sent to one of the physical NICs in the bond and packets arriving at any of the physical NICs are automatically directed to the appropriate logical NIC.

Physical NIC ports needs to be configured in active-standby mode only while using VMware NIC teaming feature.

To configure, perform the following steps:

Note

The figures shown in this procedure are intended as examples of the user interface and might not match the presented image exactly.

  1. Make sure the physical host server is configured with minimum 8 physical NIC ports to have 1:1 physical NIC redundancy for each vNICs (that is MGMT0, HA0, PKT0 and PKT1 virtual interfaces) on SBC VM.

  2. Repeat sub steps of Step 3 shown in Configuring vNetwork Standard Switch Without Physical NIC Redundancy

  3. Add additional NICs and group it by using the following steps:

    1. Select Management network Properties link as shown:

      Selecting Management Network Properties

    2. In vSwitch properties window click Network Adapters tab and click Add.

      Selecting Network Adapter

    3. In Add Adapter Wizard, select the NIC to group it. For example, if you are grouping vmnic1 and vmnic4 for management network, select vmnic4 check box.

      Selecting NIC

    4. Click Next after selecting the vmnic.

      Selecting NIC

    5. Select the order of fail over by moving adapters up or down.

      Arranging Failover Order

    6. Click Next in Failover Order, and then click Finish.

      Adapter Summary

  4. Now the management network adapter is grouped with NICs (in this example, vmnic0 and vmnic4) to support NIC redundancy. Following example screen shows management network adapter NIC redundancy.

    NIC Redundancy for Management Network

  5. Repeat the steps of Adding Additional NICs for HA, PKT0 and PKT1 ports NIC grouping.