Specify connection for backup traffic to esxi cluster

[stevehathaway]

This may have been answered before.
My client has a 4 host esxi 6.7 cluster.
the new hosts all have 2x 1Gb & 2x 10Gb NICs
One of the 10Gb links is vLAN'ed off for iSCSI
The other is used on a vSwitch for VM traffic with one of the 1Gb links for failover
The remaining 1Gb link is on another vSwitch for management & vMotion

The new [Physical] backup server has 2 x10Gb NICs & 2 x 1Gb NICs
I need to use the 10Gb connections for backup - can't use a separate vLAN as its also used for VM traffic
On the hosts is it as simple as setting up a vmkernel port group on the vSwitch (using a different subnet to the main one) & forcing it to only use the 10Gb NIC ?
Then on the Veeam server how to modify the config to force the backup traffic to use the 10Gb network

Thanks in advance

[HannesK]

Hello,

can't use a separate vLAN as its also used for VM traffic

what do you mean with this? A backup server does not host VMs, so there is no VM traffic

One of the 10Gb links is vLAN'ed off for iSCSI

which means you have no storage redundancy? I would re-design that and connect the backup server with 10Gbit to the iSCSI VLAN and do direct SAN backup: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100

To answer your question: I believe that you are asking for the "preferred networks" setting: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100

But again: I recommend to re-design the setup.

Best regards,
Hannes

[stevehathaway]

Hi Hannes,

The redundancy for the iSCSI is in the cluster as its for archive only.
The VMs are on a fibre SAN, the backup server does not have any Fibre HBA.
So each host has a dedicated iSCSI connection & the other 10Gb connection is used for VM traffic on the hosts.
So if we use the 10Gb cards in the backup server to connect to an additional VMkernel on this vSwitch, we can use a different IP range for the traffic & I just need to use the preferred network as per the article

Thanks,

Steve