DSwitch for failover plant

[LucasFr]

Hello,

I have two ESXi cluster with each 3 hosts. For my disaster recovery plan, i will be create one veeam failover plan. The concept is the following :

DC1 = Cluster01 and DC2 = Cluster02 (these cluster are in the same vCenter). I case of problem, i can activate my failover plan for restarting Cluster01 on Cluster02 (or reverse).

For the VM network connection, i use VMware DistribSwitch.

My question is the following :

What is the best practice for the VM network connection ? I must create two DSwitch my each cluster ? (DSwitch-DC1 and DSwitch-DC2 for exemple)
Or i can use only one Dswitch (Dswitch-Cluster01-02) ?

For information, the network infrastructure (L2 and L3) at the same for the two cluster.

I'm just ask me if it's verry "utils" to separate the network connection in two different Dswitch when it is the same physical network infrastructure.

Thx a lot

[HannesK]

Hello,
I don't believe, that there is a real best practice whether one or two distributed switches are better. As you say, it's a flat network, one would be enough and I tend to say "less is better = keep it simple".

By the way, where is your VCenter running? What happens if the location goes down?

Best regards,
Hannes

[LucasFr]

Yes, i agree with you.

My vCenter Server is located on Synergy/nexus infrastructure (for all server used for the plant production).

[HannesK]

my question was more "where will vCenter run when the datacenter goes down"? I assumed that it is running in one DC that could go down... and then things might become a chicken / egg issue.

[PetrM]

Hello,

We don't have special recommendations for distributed switch from failover perspective but if you're seeking for general best practices, then this white paper might be helpful, most of the provided recommendations should be still applicable. Also, an interesting test is described in this article, the VM connected to a port group on the distributed switch can be successfully pinged even after VC is powered off.

Thanks!