Storage Spaces Direct - Live Migration Uses Wrong Network

Good Morning all,

The formatting in this text is the best I can do...even tabs/bullets do not seem to work

I have read a LOT on this topic and here is a summary of the problem I am facing, plus where I am currently.

The Problem – Live Migration is using the wrong network.
When I “Live Migrate” a VM, it is only the “Host Mgmt” network that shows any throughput in Task Manager
Live Migration does work, but I cannot seem to find a way to force the Live Migration traffic over the 10GbE networks

Main Question:
• How do I configure the 10GbE networks to be used the Live Migrations?

Follow up questions:
• How do I test the 10GbE networks?
• How do I test the Cluster configuration for this problem?
• How do I perform a file copy over a specific interface to prove/disprove the basic 10GbE connectivity?

I have seen articles on SMB and SMB Direct – but not sure where to go now as I have tried a lot of things to try and “fix” this.

I would be grateful any help in this frustrating matter.

So, how did I get here……

The Scenario – 2 x node Storage Spaces Direct cluster:
• Windows 2019 Server on Dell R640 servers with QLogic QL41162HMRJ – 2x1GbE & 2x10GbE card

The hardware configuration includes:
• Appropriate disks for caching and capacity - all working satisfactorily

2x1GbE – these are switched and connected to the local network infrastructure. I have created a SET VMSwitch and converged the networks with VMNetAdapters on top - all working satisfactorily with ping and routing etc…

2x10GbE – switchless – standard cable from server to server with no switch in between
• These will be used for S2D, Live Migration, Storage Migration etc..
• Set to iWARP in BIOS
• RDMA enabled & Mode = iWARP
• Jumbo Frames enabled to 9014 – successfully checked with ping to ensure enabled
• VMQ enabled
• RSSProfile = NUMAScalingStatic
• Network Direct Functionality = Enabled
• Data Centre Bridging not configured – apparently not needed with switchless cluster
• Each interface in own vLAN:
• Server1_Port#1<->Server2_Port#1 on vLAN xxx
• Server1_Port#2<->Server2_Port#2 on vLAN yyy
• Each NIC can ping its corresponding partner successfully

The Cluster configuration includes:
• “Test-Cluster” output with 100% Success before creation of Cluster
• Host Mgmt = Role 3 “Cluster and Client”
• Other Converged vNICs = Role 1 “Cluster”
• Storage [10GbE] = Role 1 “Cluster”
• All Resources are “Up” in Cluster GUI – no errors reported
• Live Migration networks selected are ONLY the 10GbE ones – and top of the list too
• “Validate Cluster” output with 100% Success after creation of Cluster
• Cluster Events show “NO Errors” or indeed any records at all

Hyper-V Configuration includes:
  • Live Migration
    • Enabled = True
    • 4 Simultaneous
    • “Use these IP Addresses for Live Migration – is enabled and show the correct addresses
    • Advanced Features
      • “Use Kerberos” = true
      • “SMB” = true

Thanks for listening.

Stephen.