A single vMotion can now scale over multiple NICs. This feature can use a regular vSwitch or distributed vSwitch.On YouTube there are 2 videos, uploaded by VMwareKB, that show how to configure such a vMotion enabled multi-NIC vSwitch, regular and distributed.

Very useful videos, but as you can imagine, I wanted to automate this. No GUI clicking for me 

The script

function Set-vMotionMultiNic{
<#
.SYNOPSIS  Configure multi-NIC vMotion
.DESCRIPTION The function will configure multi-NIC vMotion
  enabled portgroups on a regular vSwitch 
.NOTES  Author:  Luc Dekens
.PARAMETER VMHost
  The ESXi host where the vMotion enabled portgroups shall be
  configured.
  The parameter accepts a string or the object returned by the
  Get-VMHost cmdlet.
.PARAMETER VirtualSwitch
  The virtual switch on which the vMotion enabled portgroups
  shall be configured.
  The parameter accepts a string or the object returned by the
  Get-VirtualSwitch cmdlet.
.PARAMETER pNic
  An array with the vnics that shall be used to configure the
  portgroups. Depending on the number of provided vnics, the
  function will create the optimal number of portgroups.
  The arrays on pNic, IPaddress and SubnetMask shall have the
  same number of elements.
.PARAMETER IpAddress
  An array with the IP addresses that shall be used on the
  portgroups
.PARAMETER SubnetMask
  An array with the subnetmasks.
.EXAMPLE
  PS> Set-vMotionMultiNic -VMHost MyESX -VSwitch MyvSw `
  PS>>   -pNic "vmnic2","vmnic3","vmnic4" `
  PS>>   -IpAddress "192.168.1.1","192.168.1.2","192.168.1.3" `
  PS>>   -SubnetMask (,"255.255.255.0" * 3)
#>
  param(
    [psobject]$VMHost,
    [psobject]$VirtualSwitch,
    [string[]]$pNic,
    [string[]]$IpAddress,
    [string[]]$SubnetMask
  )56
  
  if($VMHost.getType().Name -eq "string"){
    $VMHost = Get-VMHost -Name $VMHost
  }
  if($VMHost.ApiVersion.Split('.')[0] -lt 5){
    Write-Warning "MultiNic for vMotion requires at least ESXi 5.0"
    exit
  }

  if($VirtualSwitch.getType().Name -eq "string"){
    $VirtualSwitch = $VMHost | Get-VirtualSwitch -Name $VirtualSwitch
  }
  $indices = 0..($pNic.Count - 1)
  foreach($i in $indices){
    $pg = New-VirtualPortGroup -Name ("vMotion-{0:d2}" -f ($i + 1)) -VirtualSwitch $VirtualSwitch
    New-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMHost $VMHost -VirtualSwitch $VirtualSwitch -PortGroup $pg -IP $IpAddress[$i] -SubnetMask $SubnetMask[$i] -VMotionEnabled:$true | Out-Null
    Get-NicTeamingPolicy -VirtualPortGroup $pg | 
    Set-NicTeamingPolicy -MakeNicActive $pNic[$i] -MakeNicStandby $pNic[($indices | where {$_ -ne $i})] |Out-Null
  }
}

Annotations

Line 42-44: A simple Object By Name (OBN) implementation for the ESXi host

Line 45-48: A check if we are configuring this for at least a vSphere 5 server

Line 50-52: A simple Object By Name (OBN) implementation for the regular vSwitch

Line 53: When the function is called with ‘n’ vnics, it will have to create ‘n’ portgroups. This calculation creates the list of suffixes that will be used on the portgroup names.

Line 55: The creation of the portgroup. Note how the function adds a 2 digit suffix with the -format operator to the basename (‘vMotion’)

Line 56: Set the IP address and subnetmask

Line 57-58: The Teaming is configured in the same way the VMwareKB video demonstrates.

Sample use

To demonstrate the function, I will use a simple configuration. We have 1 regular vSwitch that has 3 vnics connected to it.

We call the function

$IP = "192.168.0.210","192.168.0.211","192.168.0.212"
$MASK = "255.255.255.0","255.255.255.0","255.255.255.0"
$NIC = "vmnic1","vmnic2","vmnic3"

Set-vMotionMultiNic -VMHost 192.168.0.107 -VirtualSwitch vSwitch1 -pNic $NIC -IPAddress $IP -SubnetMask $MASK

The function creates the vMotion portgroups (in the same way as the VMwareKB video shows).

And each of these vMotion enabled portgroups is configured similar to the method shown in the video.

In a following post I will show how this can be done for a dvSwitch.

Enjoy !