Xenserver network bonds

[cookie_monster]

Hi all, i'm reading conflicting information on the network setup for Xenserver. I have two servers with 4 network cards i'd like to have 2 bonded cards to carry VM storage traffic and 2 bonded cards to carry general network traffic and the management interface. The problem is that i've seen this below in the xencenter docs.

Note that a server with its management interface on a bond will not be permitted to join a pool. You will need to reconfigure the server's management interface and move it back on to a physical NIC before it can join a pool.

but i've also seen this as well...

Citrix recommends configuring management networks using a dedicated network interface or interfaces configured in a bond. The interface may be shared with VMs if desired; however, Citrix recommends separating VM, management, and storage traffic.

So the question is if I configure a xenserver to have 2 cards for storage and another bond with 2 cards for general LAN traffic and the management interface will this cause issues when I add a second xenserver to the pool as indicated in the first quote?

Anyone got a setup like this.


I'm going to give it a try anyway so i'll post back with how I get on

Cheers.

[Willott]

I don't have the storage interface (as we have Fibre), but I do have the management interface on a bonded nic which is shared with the VMs LAN traffic.

<edit>And I have a pool running happily with 3 xen servers</edit>

Cheers

Will

[Ric_]

I used to have the management interface shared on a bond but it wouldn't let me upgrade from 5.0 to 5.5 so I changed it - tbh, the single NIC I'm using for CIFS traffic isn't being stretched anyway.

[Willott]

Ah, that's a thought, I'm running 5.0 currently. I may do upgrade to 5.5 over the summer, so I'll see what happens then.

Cheers

[cookie_monster]

I used to have the management interface shared on a bond but it wouldn't let me upgrade from 5.0 to 5.5 so I changed it - tbh, the single NIC I'm using for CIFS traffic isn't being stretched anyway.

Do you have a CIFS share on one of your xen units Ric_?

I'm on 5.5 anyway so that should be ok. I'm just a bit worried that one Gb link might not be enough to handle the traffic it I had WSUS a file server and another (not sure what) server running on it.

@ Will, i'll try bonding two including the management interface on the pool master and then add the second server to the pool and see what happens.

[Ric_]

@cookie_monster: I currently have 14 VMs on XenServer (all sharing a pair of bonded NICS) and then I have a single NIC serving CIFS traffic.

[cookie_monster]

Wow ok so you're running 14 VM's on one physical box, i'll not panic about my three VM's needing to share a 1Gb card yet then


What are you using the CIFS share on the xenserver for if you don't mind me asking? I thought your storage was all on your SAN.