# Determining the Network Topology for Commvault Flex Appliance

Determining the network topology is a crucial first step that can affect nearly every part of the Commvault Flex Appliance deployment in your environment.

Commvault Flex Appliance software leverages several technologies that are critically dependent on a fast and stable network connection. Due to that, there are guidelines on how the network should be configured to ensure that the appliance is stable and meets the performance expectations.

Important

Several pre-defined topologies have been validated and built into the software. These validated topologies are explained below.

If the network topology in your environment is not listed here, or if you are not sure of the topology that is required for your environment, contact your Commvault representative for assistance.

Answering the following questions will help to determine a recommended topology:

- Do you require network redundancy?

- Do you have a dedicated non-routable backup network?

- Do you require the appliance to be connected to multiple vLANs?

Use the following selection guide to determine the topology required for your environment:

Require Network Redundancy | Have dedicated non-routable backup network | Require multiple VLANs connected to the appliance | Recommended Topology
--- | --- | --- | ---
No | No | No | Basic topology
Yes | No | No | Bonded topology

## Considerations

For proper operations, the Commvault Flex Appliance node require connectivity to the following networks:

- Data protection network, which transfers data to and from the clients being protected and connect to the CommServe server. This will require a minimum of at least one dedicated 10 GbE network connection.

- Optional Management network which is used only when the data protection interfaces are non-routable, and an alternative interface must be used for management.

Consider the following while determining your network topology:

- All Commvault Flex Appliance nodes in a single storage pool, must reside in the same location. Spanning multiple locations over a WAN is not supported.

- Commvault Flex Appliance node within a single pool are not required to be connected to the same switch. However, steps should be taken to minimize latency and ensure sufficient bandwidth is available for uplinks. Additional latency or bandwidth restriction can result in reduced performance, and in extreme cases, instability.

Consider the following when planning for large-scale deployments:

- When sizing inter-switch links, assume that Commvault Flex Appliance node will require a minimum of 20 GBPS bandwidth.

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