Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
in favor of other trafi c; however, if the queue for network trafi c processing is not full, the pack-
ets are retained for transmission at a later time.
Figure 5.41
Tra c shaping
reduces the out-
bound bandwidth
available to a port
group.
Traffic Shaping as a Last Resort
Use the tra c-shaping feature sparingly. Tra c shaping should be reserved for situations where
VMs are competing for bandwidth and the opportunity to add physical network adapters isn't
available because you don't have enough expansion slots on the physical chassis. With the low cost
of network adapters, it is more worthwhile to spend time building vSwitch devices with NIC teams
as opposed to cutting the bandwidth available to a set of VMs.
Perform the following steps to coni gure trafi c shaping:
1.
Use the vSphere Web Client to establish a connection to a vCenter Server instance.
2.
Navigate to the ESXi host on which you'd like to coni gure trafi c shaping. With an ESXi
host selected, go to the Networking section of the Manage tab.
3.
Make sure Virtual Switches is selected, click the virtual switch on which trafi c shaping
should be enabled, and then click the Edit Settings icon.
4.
Select Trafi c Shaping.
5.
Select the Enabled option from the Status drop-down list.
6.
Adjust the Average Bandwidth value to the desired number of kilobits per second.
7.
Adjust the Peak Bandwidth value to the desired number of kilobits per second.
8.
Adjust the Burst Size value to the desired number of kilobytes.
Keep in mind that trafi c shaping on a vSphere Standard Switch applies only to outbound
trafi c.
Bringing It All Together
By now you've seen how all the various components of ESXi virtual networking interact with
each other—vSwitches, ports and port groups, uplinks and NIC teams, and VLANs. But how do
you assemble all these pieces into a usable whole?
The number and the coni guration of the vSwitches and port groups depend on several fac-
tors, including the number of network adapters in the ESXi host, the number of IP subnets, the
existence of VLANs, and the number of physical networks. With respect to the coni guration of
