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HCI
1.10

Network configuration

Contributors netapp-yvonneo amgrissino netapp-dbagwell

NetApp HCI can utilize multiple different network cabling and VLAN configurations. The first configuration, option B, uses six network cables for each compute node.

Configuration option B: Six cables for compute nodes

As a secondary network configuration option, the H410C compute nodes support using six network cables for connectivity to all NetApp HCI networks. This configuration requires that the storage, vMotion and any virtual machine networks use VLAN tagging. You can use this configuration with vSphere Standard Switches or vSphere Distributed Switches (which require VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus licensing).

NetApp HCI documentation uses letters to refer to network ports on the back panel of H-series nodes.

Here are the network ports and locations on the H410C compute node:

NetApp H410C compute node network ports

VLAN configuration

When you deploy compute nodes using six cables and storage nodes using four cables, as a best practice, you should configure the required network segments on all switch ports that the nodes are using. For example:

Network name VLAN ID Switch port configuration

Management

100

Native

Storage

105

Tagged

vMotion

107

Tagged

Virtual machines

200, 201

Tagged

The following illustration shows the recommended cabling configuration for six-cable compute nodes and four-cable storage nodes. All switch ports in this example share the same configuration.

HCI networking configuration option B image

Example switch commands

You can use the following example commands to configure all switch ports used for NetApp HCI nodes. These commands are based on a Cisco configuration, but might require only small changes to apply to Mellanox switches. See your switch documentation for the specific commands you need to implement this configuration. Replace the interface name, description, and VLANs with the values for your environment.

interface {interface name, such as EthernetX/Y or GigabitEthernetX/Y/Z}
description {desired description, such as NetApp-HCI-NodeX-PortY}
mtu 9216
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk native vlan 100
switchport trunk allowed vlan 105,107,200,201
spanning-tree port type edge trunk

Note Some switches might require inclusion of the native VLAN in the allowed VLAN list. See the documentation for your specific switch model and software version.

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