hey everyone.
have hopefully a fairly easy and straightforward question that I need clarification on.
Running the free version of ESXi 5.5.
I have 5 physical NIC's in my server.
My original plan was to setup two, maybe three networks:
-production network
-storage network (iSCSI/NFS)
-backup network
Just some items I was going to play around with in my lab.
My idea is I run a lot of VM's testing things out. I wanted to attach either NFS (I believe NFS4 is not supported with this version? correct me if I am wrong) or iSCSI to present storage to ESXi. I was hoping to put this on its own network, separated from the production network VM's.
however, working within vSphere, although I have all 5 NIC's available to use, I cannot set my own network range when creating a new vswitch. I also see that I have to supply a gateway as well (was thinking of just setting up some VLAN's to keep the traffic isolated). Of course, a physical layer 3 switch could solve my challenges, but those are pretty pricey.
Another thread I saw brought up the potential to setup a router internally (router on a stick), which is something else that came to mind.
I realize I am running the free version and there are some limitations. Just wanted to clarify because I may have missed something.
Much appreciated.
TCS