After you deploy a vSphere Bitfusion server, you can connect your vSphere Bitfusion server to multiple networks by adding, removing, and modifying network interfaces.

You can connect the virtual machine of a vSphere Bitfusion server to up to 4 networks and if you do not use a DHCP server, you can set a network's IPv4 address, CIDR Prefix, and MTU size. You can also specify a network gateway address, DNS server address, DNS search domain address, and NTP server address for the management network.
Adapter Description
Network Adapter 1 This network is used for management and data traffic.
Network Adapter 2 This network is used for data traffic only.
Network Adapter 3 This network is used for data traffic only.
Network Adapter 4 This network is used for data traffic only.

Add a network interface

You can connect the virtual machine of your vSphere Bitfusion server to up to four networks.

During the deployment process of a vSphere Bitfusion server, you must configure at least Network Adapter 1, which is used for management and data traffic. Network adapters 2, 3, and 4 are optional and are used for data traffic only. To add network interfaces for data traffic after the deployment process of your server is finished, follow this procedure.
Note: Each network adapter must be connected to a separate network. vSphere Bitfusion chooses the network that is most efficient for data transfers to the vSphere Bitfusion server.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Add or remove device privilege.
  • Verify that the virtual machine of the vSphere Bitfusion server is powered off.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine of a vSphere Bitfusion server and select Edit Settings.
  2. On the Virtual Hardware tab, click the Add New Device button.
  3. Under Network, select Network Adapter.
  4. From the New Network drop-down menu, select a network to connect the virtual machine to.
  5. Expand the New Network section and from the Adapter Type drop-down menu, select the network adapter to assign to the virtual machine.
    vSphere Bitfusion supports VMXNET3 and PVRDMA adapters.
  6. Click OK.

Results

You have added a new network adapter to the virtual machine of your vSphere Bitfusion server.

What to do next

  • You can add up to four network adapters.
  • Enable the adapter on the vSphere Bitfusion server and specify additional settings, if you are not using DHCP. See Configure a network interface.

Configure a network interface

To configure a network adapter and specify the network's IPv4 address, CIDR Prefix, and MTU size, you must configure vApp properties. vSphere Bitfusion uses the values of these properties and configures the networking during the boot of the virtual machine.

The following procedure provides information on how to enable and set the network configuration for Network Adapter 2 by configuring vApp properties. You can modify the configuration of the other network adapters by replacing the properties that is used in this procedure. For a list of all vApp properties that you can modify, see vSphere Bitfusion vApp properties.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have the vApp.vApp application configuration privilege.
  • Verify that the virtual machine of the vSphere Bitfusion server is powered off.

Procedure

  1. From the Hosts and Clusters view in vCenter Server, select the virtual machine of a vSphere Bitfusion server.
  2. On the Configure tab, select Settings > vApp Options.
  3. In the Properties pane, select the guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net2.configure property and click Set Value.
  4. In the Set value dialog box, activate the toggle switch and click OK.
  5. If you do not use DHCP, select а property and specify the value for Network Adapter 2.
    Property Value
    guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net2.ipv4address Enter an IPv4 address. For example, 192.168.200.111.
    guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net2.netmask Select a netmask value from the drop-down menu.
    guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net2.mtu Enter a valid MTU size. For example, 9000.

Results

You have configured Network Adapter 2.

What to do next

You can configure the other network adapters by replacing the corresponding properties and following the same procedure. See vSphere Bitfusion vApp properties.

Remove a network interface

You can remove a network adapter, if for example, the virtual machine of a vSphere Bitfusion server is no longer using a network.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Add or remove device privilege.
  • Verify that you have the vApp.vApp application configuration privilege.
  • Verify that the virtual machine of the vSphere Bitfusion server is powered off.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, select the virtual machine of a vSphere Bitfusion server and select Edit Settings.
  2. On the Virtual Hardware tab, to delete a network interface, click the remove icon (vSphere Client remove icon) next to the network adapter.
  3. Click OK.
  4. From the Hosts and Clusters view in vCenter Server, select the virtual machine of the vSphere Bitfusion.
  5. On the Configure tab, select Settings > vApp Options.
  6. In the Properties pane, select a property and click Set Value.
    • If you deleted Network Adapter 2, select guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net2.configure.
    • If you deleted Network Adapter 3, select guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net3.configure.
    • If you deleted Network Adapter 4, select guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net4.configure.
  7. In the Set value dialog box, deactivate the toggle switch and click OK.

Results

You removed the network adapter and the virtual machine of your vSphere Bitfusion server is not connected to this network.

vSphere Bitfusion vApp properties

A list of all vApp properties that you can modify by changing their values.

vSphere Bitfusion server setup

Property Value
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.hostname The hostname for the server.

Valid characters for hostnames are the ASCII characters A through Z (both upper- and lower-case), the digits 0 to 9, and the hyphen (-). A hostname cannot start with a hyphen.
guestinfo.bitfusion.server.vcenter-guid The vCenter Server GUID.
guestinfo.bitfusion.server.vcenter-url The vCenter Server URL.
guestinfo.bitfusion.server.vcenter-username The username for the vCenter Server instance.
guestinfo.bitfusion.server.vcenter-password The password for the vCenter Server instance.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.install_nvidia_packages Slide the toggle button to ON position to download and install the NVIDIA software, or slide the toggle button to OFF position to skip this process.

Network Adapter 1 (Management and data)

Property Value
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net1.ipv4address The IPv4 address of the network adapter. If you are using DHCP, leave this value blank.
Note: IPv6 is not supported.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net1.netmask The network Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) settings.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net1.mtu The MTU size. The default value is 1500. For optimal performance, specify an MTU size of 4000 or greater. You can leave this text box blank for default value.
Note: If you set an MTU size greater than 1500, verify that the network switches in your data center are enabled for jumbo frames.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net1.gateway The network gateway address to use with the appliance. If you are using DHCP, leave this text box blank.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net1.dns The DNS server address to use with the appliance. If you are using DHCP, leave this text box blank.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net1.domain The DNS search domain address to use with the appliance. If you are using DHCP, leave this text box blank.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net1.ntp The NTP server address to use with the appliance. If you are using DHCP and the DHCP server supports sending NTP server information, leave this text box blank.

Network Adapter 2 (Data)

Property Value
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net2.configure Activate or deactivate the toggle switch to configure or not to configure this interface.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net2.ipv4address The IPv4 address of the network adapter. If you are using DHCP, leave this value blank.
Note: IPv6 is not supported.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net2.netmask The network Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) settings.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net2.mtu The MTU size. The default value is 1500. For optimal performance, specify an MTU size of 4000 or greater. You can leave this text box blank for default value.
Note: If you set an MTU size greater than 1500, verify that the network switches in your data center are enabled for jumbo frames.

Network Adapter 3 (Data)

Property Value
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net3.configure Activate or deactivate the toggle switch to configure or not to configure this interface.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net3.ipv4address The IPv4 address of the network adapter. If you are using DHCP, leave this value blank.
Note: IPv6 is not supported.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net3.netmask The network Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) settings.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net3.mtu The MTU size. The default value is 1500. For optimal performance, specify an MTU size of 4000 or greater. You can leave this text box blank for default value.
Note: If you set an MTU size greater than 1500, verify that the network switches in your data center are enabled for jumbo frames.

Network Adapter 4 (Data)

Property Value
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net4.configure Activate or deactivate the toggle switch to configure or not to configure this interface.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net4.ipv4address The IPv4 address of the network adapter. If you are using DHCP, leave this value blank.
Note: IPv6 is not supported.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net4.netmask The network Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) settings.
guestinfo.bitfusion.host.net4.mtu The MTU size. The default value is 1500. For optimal performance, specify an MTU size of 4000 or greater. You can leave this text box blank for default value.
Note: If you set an MTU size greater than 1500, verify that the network switches in your data center are enabled for jumbo frames.