Fairly new to ESXi, using 4.1
Has a vSwitch setup with both physical nic cards, one of them is for the public network of the host server and the other is for the private network.
Without mapping one of the nics to a second vSwitch, will ESXi and my VMs actually be able to use both nics?
Realistically I want ESXi management network for vSphere to use the public network nic so that I can control it, and the Virtual Machines should also use the public network nic so they can be reachable servers.
The private nic can stay on the box so that the hosting provider can monitor it and provide me access via IPMI as needed, but otherwise I don't think I need it…
Best Answer
If you don't map a NIC to any vSwitch, then that NIC will not be used at all. Period.
If you want all traffic (both management and VM) to go to the public network, then the NIC connected to the private network is effectively useless; you can ask your hosting provider to connect it to the public network just like the other one, then map them both to the same vSwitch, and you'll get automatic load balancing and failover for the server's network connection.