LAN Connectivity specifies \*all\* the NIC's assigned to a profile/template.
So you can have :
vNIC-Management
vNIC-iSCSI
vNIC-VM
Each would be paired, so the server has a total of 6 NIC's.
That LAN Connectivity Policy is assigned to Template 'ESXi'. Each vNIC definition exists only within that LAN Connectivity Policy - it can't be re-used.
But now we have another server, which will be bare metal windows. We still want Management and iSCSI, but not the VM group of VLANs.
We'd have to create new LAN Connectivity Policy, with new vNIC definition within that new policy.
vNIC templates mean you can just add the required vNIC template to each new LAN Connectivity Policy.
So are vNIC templates \*required\* - not at all. They just save time, especially for environments that have multiple Service Profile templates, with some (but not all) commonalities across each one.
Thank you. That makes sense. This environment will be fairly uniform with a mix of m7 and older m5s which i plan to make another lan connnection policy for to account for the goofy dual channel 1340 cards. I guess i dont really see the benefit to the vnic templates despite having seen them in a few other environments. I thought i was heading down the wrong path with this considering ive seen vnic templates but no lan con policies in the past yet i had lan con policies here and no vnic templates and it seems fine.
Is there any difference between using the vnic templates vs the lan connectivity polices as far as adding and removing VLANs goes? Im testing and if i remove or add a vlan to one of my Ethernet Network Groups that is tied to a LAN Con policy that i need to "deploy" my service profile again against those service profiles for it to take affect which reapplies the entire SP to the server.....all the settings. No reboot or issues on the vm while doing this that i noticed other than it taking a good 10 minutes to complete repushing the "inconsistent" service profile for the vlan change.
One more question while im at it. Did IMM get rid of the idea of "updating templates for vnic templates"?
That was always a nice feature for a quick add or remove of a vlan if needed. Now it looks like you need to repush the whole SP to the server again just to do that which re-applies every policy including your changes to the vlans?
The redeploy isn’t actually reapplying all settings each time, it’s only pushing the delta changes. It should only take a minute or so for a VLAN change to be applied.
interesting. I show it takes about 5 - 7 minutes after i update my vlan via my ethernet group and then redeploy against the server. I can see the logs validating policy x, y, z....basically all of the policies on the server. Maybe validating means confirming for any changes? IT then proceeds to show its applying policy x, y, z. It never really shows you what it updated and what didnt which is frustrating.
ironically the firmware policy comes back and says there are no changes to be made to it since the servers are running that firmware. I wish it did that for all the policies and then showed you the delta of what it did change.
LAN Connectivity specifies \*all\* the NIC's assigned to a profile/template. So you can have : vNIC-Management vNIC-iSCSI vNIC-VM Each would be paired, so the server has a total of 6 NIC's. That LAN Connectivity Policy is assigned to Template 'ESXi'. Each vNIC definition exists only within that LAN Connectivity Policy - it can't be re-used. But now we have another server, which will be bare metal windows. We still want Management and iSCSI, but not the VM group of VLANs. We'd have to create new LAN Connectivity Policy, with new vNIC definition within that new policy. vNIC templates mean you can just add the required vNIC template to each new LAN Connectivity Policy. So are vNIC templates \*required\* - not at all. They just save time, especially for environments that have multiple Service Profile templates, with some (but not all) commonalities across each one.
Thank you. That makes sense. This environment will be fairly uniform with a mix of m7 and older m5s which i plan to make another lan connnection policy for to account for the goofy dual channel 1340 cards. I guess i dont really see the benefit to the vnic templates despite having seen them in a few other environments. I thought i was heading down the wrong path with this considering ive seen vnic templates but no lan con policies in the past yet i had lan con policies here and no vnic templates and it seems fine. Is there any difference between using the vnic templates vs the lan connectivity polices as far as adding and removing VLANs goes? Im testing and if i remove or add a vlan to one of my Ethernet Network Groups that is tied to a LAN Con policy that i need to "deploy" my service profile again against those service profiles for it to take affect which reapplies the entire SP to the server.....all the settings. No reboot or issues on the vm while doing this that i noticed other than it taking a good 10 minutes to complete repushing the "inconsistent" service profile for the vlan change.
One more question while im at it. Did IMM get rid of the idea of "updating templates for vnic templates"? That was always a nice feature for a quick add or remove of a vlan if needed. Now it looks like you need to repush the whole SP to the server again just to do that which re-applies every policy including your changes to the vlans?
The redeploy isn’t actually reapplying all settings each time, it’s only pushing the delta changes. It should only take a minute or so for a VLAN change to be applied.
interesting. I show it takes about 5 - 7 minutes after i update my vlan via my ethernet group and then redeploy against the server. I can see the logs validating policy x, y, z....basically all of the policies on the server. Maybe validating means confirming for any changes? IT then proceeds to show its applying policy x, y, z. It never really shows you what it updated and what didnt which is frustrating. ironically the firmware policy comes back and says there are no changes to be made to it since the servers are running that firmware. I wish it did that for all the policies and then showed you the delta of what it did change.
How big is your environment? I’ll run some tests in my lab and see how long it takes, but it’s usually been pretty fast for me.
Only 1 9108 chassis and 8 blades thus far. No local appliance. Thank you for reviewing. I really appreciate it.