Cisco UCS NIC Teaming

[sridhar ch]

Hi,

can someone help me with the configuration for the below.

I have to connect Cisco UCS C220M4 server to N5K VPC domain. what should be the configuration on Nexus and Cisco UCS. My virtualization team has deployed ESXi 6.X ver. we are going to use for call manager (subscriber). attached the diagram for your reference. Call manager will be assigned IP belongs to vlan 74 and this will be the only server or VM residing on the UCS box. Does UCS support LACP?

[Philip D'Ath]

Their probably isn't much benefit in using LACP.  You don't really need a lot of throughout for call manager.  Just give VMWare a physical NIC connected to each physical switch, and let it handle the failover.  The VM will be attached to either one or the other physical NIC, depending on what is up.

[Kirk J]

Greetings.

LACP and other switch assisted/802.3ad options are a function of the ESXi operating system virtual switch and the NIC drivers.  The guestVM network isn't really going to be aware of LACP or other type of teaming options that exist underneath it at the esxi virtual switching layer.

For your ESXi vswitch teaming config, you still have to list each of your adapters in the team, with the primary difference being the teaming algorithm you choose (default originating port ID vs IP hash, etc).

If your physical switching environment is already configured to support 802.3ad, LACP, etc you may as well use it.  See VMware LACP requirements at https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc%2FGUID-0D1EF5B4-7581-480B-B99D-5714B42CD7A9.html

Please make sure your NIC drivers for ESXi are current (https://ucshcltool.cloudapps.cisco.com/public/#)

As Phillip noted, you probably won't get a lot of kick, in terms of performance as you only have the one guestVm with minimal traffic.

Thanks,

Kirk...