Second management interface/NIC/IP for ESXi 6.5
We have 3 ESXi servers that each have their public IP for manageability, however for the backups we need the servers to have an internal on a different NIC.
However, when we've added a new VMKernel network, the original (public IP) network won't connect anymore, resulting in the server being only reachable via the newly added LAN network.
Is there a solution we can use so the servers are reachable on both NICs/IPs ?
The 3 servers have these configuration for network:
Interface 1: Dell iDRAC
Interface 2: VMWare public management network (public)
Interface 3: VMWare private management network (10.0.0.1/24)
Interface 4-5: Double redundant uplink
Interface 6-7: LAN network trunked
Answer
You may use the same switch (with 2 uplinks and explicit LBFO settings for different port groups) or two different switches each using its own uplink - one for external and another for internal management network.
I think you can keep external management network setup as it is now (same vSwitch, same management port group, the same vmk0 adapter in default TCP/IP stack). This vmk0 adapter may have IP configuration like this:
- IP: 192.168.5.5/24
- GW: 192.168.5.1 - it may be defined for default TCP/IP stack or on vmk0 itself
For internal management network, just create another vSwitch, new management port group and new vmk1 adapter. Imagine you want to use internal management network like this:
- IP: 10.5.5.5/24
- GW: 10.5.5.1
Because we cannot have 2 gateways in default TCP/IP stack, you can define gateway directly on vmk1 (this is supported in ESXi 6.5):
esxcli network ip interface ipv4 set -g 10.5.5.1 -i vmk1 -t static -I 10.5.5.5 -N 255.255.255.0
Once you do this, I think both internal and external management networks should work for you. There may be some edge cases with routing where this scheme may not work, but I think for your use-case it should be fine.