DavidRing.ie

Prior to VCF On VxRail 5.1 ​both Management VMs (vCenter server, VxRail Manager,SDDC Manager, NSX components, etc) Network and the ESXi VMkernel Network distributed virtual port groups (DvPG) had a requirement to be on the same subnet & vLAN during day1 deployment. From VCF On VxRail 5.1 it is now possible to define a separate subnet & vLAN ID for the Management VMs network during deployment.  Thus allowing for the Management VMs network to be on the same or different network as the ESXi VMkernel Network.

VCF 5.1 on VxRail 8.0.200 enables traffic isolation between management VMs and ESXi Management VMkernel Interfaces. This feature enables end users to configure different subnets/VLANs between ESXi mgmt DvGP and mgmt VMs DvPG. Before this release, the default networking topology deployed by VCF on VxRail comprised of the ESXi host management interfaces (VMkernel interface) and management components (vCenter server, SDDC Manager, NSX components, VxRail Manager, etc.) being applied to the same distributed virtual port group (DvPG). The VM management network and the (host) management network are configured on the same VDS prepared for NSX and can be configured with their own VLAN or share the same VLAN:

Separation of DVPG for management appliances and ESXi host management prior to and from 5.1 release. Note that in VxRail the deafult port groups are labeled as follows:

• ‘Management Network’ DvPG’ = ESXi Management VMkernel Interfaces.
• ‘vCenter Server Network’ DvPG = vCenter server, VxRail Manager.

Management WLD VxRail first run & Cloudbuilder bring-up configuration:

VI WLD deployment using WFO UI configuration steps:

VI WLD deployment using WFO API script configuration steps:

Thanks to Daniel for some of the images above!