Route based on IP hash is not supported with Cisco UCS B200 M1/M2 blade servers that use UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

You experience this issue when running ESXi/ESX on Cisco UCS B200 M1/2 blade servers configured to use the Route based on IP hash NIC teaming policy.

When enabled, the NIC teaming policy involves a team of at least two NICs that selects an uplink based on a hash of the source and destination IP addresses of each packet.

Host network performance degradation can occur when using the Route based on IP hash NIC teaming policy. This is because a configuration using cross-stack link aggregation or grouping of multiple physical ports on UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects deployed as a redundant pair are not supported solutions.

As a result of the degraded network performance, you may see:

• Intermittent packet loss.
• The vSphere Client or vCenter Server may lose its connection to the ESXi/ESX host.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x

Resolution

To resolve this issue, change the NIC teaming policy to Route based on originating virtual port ID.