HA with CSV, iSCSI and Live Migration networks

[HALi]

Hello,

I configured a server for an two-node Hyper-V Cluster with StarWind VSAN v8.

In my configuration I have three X540-T2 and one I350-T4 adapters.

2x 10 GBit/s - iSCISI + Heartbeat + CSV
2x 10 GBit/s - StarWind Sync
2x 10 GBit/s - Livemigration
2x 1 GBit/s - VM / Management LAN
2x 1 GBit/s - Heartbeat

Did I need three X540-T2 or it is good to use only two of them? Can I put the Livemigration traffic on the iSCISI or StarWind Sync network?


Best regards,
HALi

[Max (staff)]

Hi,
Technically you can put the live migration traffic in a VLAN along with the iSCSI network.
Make sure you have enough throughput to handle both VM traffic and live migration traffic, even considering that 2x10GbE is capable of ~0.5 million IOPS.

[HALi]

Thanks for the information. Another question:

When I use Teaming of my NICs for the VM and Management LAN, then I must disable tcp chimney.
In another sticky topic it was enabled. I think it is no problem to disable this feature only on this adapter, right?


Best regards

[Max (staff)]

It is recommended to use MPIO instead of teaming with StarWind Virtual SAN V8 on all links used for synchronization or iSCSI client traffic.
For all other links in the system I recommend to follow Microsoft best practices.
Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions.

[HALi]

Here are my network sizing:

1x Intel 350-T4
3x Intel X540-T2


2x 1 GBit/s (Teaming) - Management & VM-LAN
2x 1 GBit/s (Teaming) - Heartbeat & Hyper-V CSV-LAN
10 GBit/s - StarWind Sync 1 (Own Subnet!)
10 GBit/s - StarWind Sync 2 (Own Subnet!)
10 GBit/s - iSCISI 1 (Own Subnet!)
10 GBit/s - iSCISI 2 (Own Subnet!)
10 GBit/s - Livemigration 1 + iSCISI 3 (Own Subnet!)
10 GBit/s - Livemigration 2 + StarWind Sync 3 (Own Subnet!)


I hope this three-way networking is right - I want to protect a fail of a ethernet adapter.
It is possible to configure prioritys or use StarWind all adapters at the same time?

Good or not good?

[Max (staff)]

Some recommendations:
1. I would suggest to remove the synchronization interface from the live migration subnet.
2. Make sure your Heartbeat is not on the domain interface. Best practice is to keep the heartbeat segregated into a dedicated VLAN and subnet.
StarWind uses all available channels bandwidth if they are enabled as synchronization or heartbeat connections.

[HALi]

In my case "Own Subnet" = private dedicated network (VLAN)

Now I read this for the CSV-LAN:

Idle until redirected I/O kicks in. In which case High Bandwidth and low latency required,


But I have only 2x 1 GBit/s in my sizing.
What is the best way with my three X540-T2 and one I350-T4 lan adapters?

I dont find any cases with Livemigration and CSV LAN on the same (20 GBit/s) network

Best regards

[Max (staff)]

Let's go from the opposite side:
What's your IOPS requirement?
What's the number of VMs you want to be able to migrate or run in the redirected mode?
1 10 GbE can handle ~250K IOPS.
This means that 2 ports configured as sync and iSCSI on 2 different NICs will give you a max of 250K/2 IOPS capability.
If that's enough for you then the other 2 ports can be dedicated for CSV-net and live migration and 3rd card isn't really necessary.

Also, keep in mind that with StarWind you don't have redirected IO.
You configure one CSV per node and designate constant ownership of that CSV by the local node.
Even if local storage on one of the nodes failed your VMs and csv will still run, but use one of the iSCSI links to xmit the data to the remaining storage mirror on the other node.

[HALi]

Thanks. I dont need big IOs for my ~25 VMs, but I want to plan a good platform without bottleneck.
I read in ths moment a article about the redirected mode...now I understand and I dont need this mode because I have a native hyper-v cluster with starwind.
If the storage broken down on both nodes, redirected access dont help me And in a 2-node cluster this mode never runs.

I think in my case the CSV network works fine with my planned 2 GBit/s.

[Max (staff)]

Great!
Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions.