Configuring network adapters for your gateway - AWS Storage Gateway
Configuring Your Gateway to Use the VMXNET3 Network AdapterConfiguring Your Gateway for Multiple NICs

Configuring network adapters for your gateway

By default, Storage Gateway is configured to use the E1000 network adapter type, but you can reconfigure your gateway to use the VMXNET3 (10 GbE) network adapter. You can also configure Storage Gateway so it can be accessed by more than one IP address. You do this by configuring your gateway to use more than one network adapter.

Configuring Your Gateway to Use the VMXNET3 Network Adapter

Storage Gateway supports the E1000 network adapter type in both VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor hosts. However, the VMXNET3 (10 GbE) network adapter type is supported in VMware ESXi hypervisor only. If your gateway is hosted on a VMware ESXi hypervisor, you can reconfigure your gateway to use the VMXNET3 (10 GbE) adapter type. For more information on these adapters, see Choosing a network adapter for your virtual machine on the Broadcom (VMware) website.

Important

To select VMXNET3, your guest operating system type must be Other Linux64.

Following are the steps you take to configure your gateway to use the VMXNET3 adapter:

  1. Remove the default E1000 adapter.

  2. Add the VMXNET3 adapter.

  3. Restart your gateway.

  4. Configure the adapter for the network.

Details on how to perform each step follow.

To remove the default E1000 adapter and configure your gateway to use the VMXNET3 adapter

  1. In VMware, open the context (right-click) menu for your gateway and choose Edit Settings.

  2. In the Virtual Machine Properties window, choose the Hardware tab.

  3. For Hardware, choose Network adapter. Notice that the current adapter is E1000 in the Adapter Type section. You will replace this adapter with the VMXNET3 adapter.

  4. Choose the E1000 network adapter, and then choose Remove. In this example, the E1000 network adapter is Network adapter 1.

    Note

    Although you can run the E1000 and VMXNET3 network adapters in your gateway at the same time, we don't recommend doing so because it can cause network problems.

  5. Choose Add to open the Add Hardware wizard.

  6. Choose Ethernet Adapter, and then choose Next.

  7. In the Network Type wizard, select VMXNET3 for Adapter Type, and then choose Next.

  8. In the Virtual Machine properties wizard, verify in the Adapter Type section that Current Adapter is set to VMXNET3, and then choose OK.

  9. In the VMware VSphere client, shut down your gateway.

  10. In the VMware VSphere client, restart your gateway.

After your gateway restarts, reconfigure the adapter you just added to make sure that network connectivity to the internet is established.

To configure the adapter for the network

  1. In the VSphere client, choose the Console tab to start the local console. Use the default login credentials to log in to the gateway's local console for this configuration task. For information about how to log in using the default credentials, see Logging in to the Local Console Using Default Credentials.

  2. At the prompt, enter the corresponding numeral to select Network Configuration.

  3. At the prompt, enter the corresponding numeral to select Reset all to DHCP, and then enter y (for yes) at the prompt to set all adapters to use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). All available adapters are set to use DHCP.

    If your gateway is already activated, you must shut it down and restart it from the Storage Gateway Management Console. After the gateway restarts, you must test network connectivity to the internet. For information about how to test network connectivity, see Testing Your Gateway Connection to the Internet.

Configuring Your Gateway for Multiple NICs

If you configure your gateway to use multiple network adapters (NICs), it can be accessed by more than one IP address. You might want to do this in the following situations:

  • Maximizing throughput – You might want to maximize throughput to a gateway when network adapters are a bottleneck.

  • Application separation – You might need to separate how your applications write to a gateway's volumes. For example, you might choose to have a critical storage application exclusively use one particular adapter defined for your gateway.

  • Network constraints – Your application environment might require that you keep your iSCSI targets and the initiators that connect to them in an isolated network that is different from the network by which the gateway communicates with AWS.

In a typical multiple-adapter use case, one adapter is configured as the route by which the gateway communicates with AWS (that is, as the default gateway). Except for this one adapter, initiators must be in the same subnet as the adapter that contains the iSCSI targets to which they connect. Otherwise, communication with the intended targets might not be possible. If a target is configured on the same adapter that is used for communication with AWS, then iSCSI traffic for that target and AWS traffic will flow through the same adapter.

When you configure one adapter to connect to the Storage Gateway console and then add a second adapter, Storage Gateway automatically configures the route table to use the second adapter as the preferred route. For instructions on how to configure multiple-adapters, see the following sections.

Configuring multiple network adapters on a VMware ESXi host

The following procedure assumes that your gateway VM already has one network adapter defined, and describes how to add an adapter on VMware ESXi.

To configure your gateway to use an additional network adapter in VMware ESXi host

  1. Shut down the gateway.

  2. In the VMware vSphere client, select your gateway VM.

    The VM can remain turned on for this procedure.

  3. In the client, open the context (right-click) menu for your gateway VM, and choose Edit Settings.

  4. On the Hardware tab of the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box, choose Add to add a device.

  5. Follow the Add Hardware wizard to add a network adapter.

    1. In the Device Type pane, choose Ethernet Adapter to add an adapter, and then choose Next.

    2. In the Network Type pane, ensure that Connect at power on is selected for Type, and then choose Next.

      We recommend that you use the VMXNET3 network adapter with Storage Gateway. For more information on the adapter types that might appear in the adapter list, see Network Adapter Types in the ESXi and vCenter Server Documentation.

    3. In the Ready to Complete pane, review the information, and then choose Finish.

  6. Choose the Summary tab for the VM, and choose View All next to the IP Address box. The Virtual Machine IP Addresses window displays all the IP addresses you can use to access the gateway. Confirm that a second IP address is listed for the gateway.

    Note

    It might take several moments for the adapter changes to take effect and the VM summary information to refresh.

  7. In the Storage Gateway console, turn on the gateway.

  8. In the Navigation pane of the Storage Gateway console, choose Gateways and choose the gateway to which you added the adapter. Confirm that the second IP address is listed in the Details tab.

For information about local console tasks common to VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM hosts, see Performing Tasks on the VM Local Console

Configuring multiple network adapters on Microsoft Hyper-V host

The following procedure assumes that your gateway VM already has one network adapter defined and that you are adding a second adapter. This procedure shows how to add an adapter for a Microsoft Hyper-V host.

To configure your gateway to use an additional network adapter in a Microsoft Hyper-V Host

  1. On the Storage Gateway console, turn off the gateway.

  2. In the Microsoft Hyper-V Manager, select your gateway VM from the Virtual Machines panel.

  3. If the gateway VM isn't turned off already, right-click the VM name to open the context menu, and then choose Turn Off.

  4. Right-click the gateway VM name to open the context menu, and then choose Settings.

  5. In the Settings dialog box, under Hardware, choose Add Hardware.

  6. In the Add Hardware panel on the right side of the Settings dialog box, choose Network Adapter, and then choose Add to add a device.

  7. Configure the network adapter, and then choose Apply to apply settings.

  8. In the Settings dialog box, under Hardware, confirm that the new network adapter was added to the hardware list, and then choose OK.

  9. Turn on the gateway using the Storage Gateway console.

  10. In the Navigation panel of the Storage Gateway console, choose Gateways, then select the gateway to which you added the adapter. Confirm that a second IP address is listed in the Details tab.

For information about local console tasks common to VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM hosts, see Performing Tasks on the VM Local Console