Recommended configuration of NIOC in Nutanix Environment

You have a Nutanix cluster with ESXi as a hypervisor, configured with Virtual Distributed Switch and you have a need to configure restriction on bandwidth for different network types, like vMotion, Management, iSCSI etc in the event of contention. VMware provides a feature known as Network I/O Control(NIOC).

Want to know more about NIOC and how it works in our environment?

NIOC Guide in Nutanix 

So how many versions of NIOC are there and which is compatible with Nutanix?

There are two versions of NIOC

• Version 2
• Version 3

NIOC version 2 was introduced after vSphere 5.5.VMware vSphere version 6.x introduced.

NIOC v3, which provided additional features like artificial features limits and reservation on system traffic.

• In vSphere 6.0x, we recommend using NIOC v2 with vDS, instead of NIOC v3  due to CPU overhead and some abnormal behaviour during our internal testing and evaluation.
•  In vSphere 6.5 Update 1, Nutanix fully supports vDS in combination with NIOC v3.

Want to know in-depth about our compatibility with NIOC v3 in vSphere 6.x?

NIOC in vSphere 6.x 

Interested to know more?

Give the following articles a coffee read!

Interested to know more about vSphere Networking in Nutanix environment?

vSphere Networking in Nutanix

Interested regarding how to enable NIOC in a VDS. Refer the following VMware Guide

VMware Guide to configure NIOC
 

Interested to know how to configure networking for vSphere including IP addresses, vSwitches and selection of management interface

VSphere Networking Configuration