Datacenter design, ESX host configs + cisco

HI all..

I am curious to know what the the Best practices to ESXi hosts in datacenter interms of networking. More specificall if it worth while implementing etherchannel trunks from Cisco switch to Esx hosts...

I have 2 ESX hosts in my LAB

Each host has 8 x 1gb NICS.

• I have enabled etherchannel on 6 nics.
• Below is My switch config...
• Done everything in vmware (iphash , Duplex settings etc...)

•  

  interface Port-channel1

  description **Etherchannel ESX1**

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  interface Port-channel3

  description **Etherchannel ESX2**

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/13

  description ***ESX2 LINK***

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

  channel-group 3 mode on

  !

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/14

  description ***ESX2 LINK***

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

         channel-group 3 mode on

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/15

  description ***ESX2 LINK***

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

  channel-group 3 mode on

  !

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/16

  description ***ESX2 LINK***

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

  channel-group 3 mode on

  !

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/17

  --More--          description ***ESX2 LINK***

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

  channel-group 3 mode on

  !

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/18

  description ***ESX2 LINK***

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

  channel-group 3 mode on

  !

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/19

  description ***ESX1 LINK***

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

  channel-group 1 mode on

  !

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/20

  description ***ESX1 LINK***

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

  channel-group 1 mode on

  !

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/21

  description ***ESX1 LINK***

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

  channel-group 1 mode on

  !

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/22

  description ***ESX1 LINK***

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

  channel-group 1 mode on

  !

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/23

  description ***ESX1 LINK***

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

  channel-group 1 mode on

  !

  interface GigabitEthernet1/0/24

  description ***ESX1 LINK****

  switchport trunk native vlan 2

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport nonegotiate

  speed 1000

  duplex full

  spanning-tree portfast trunk

  channel-group 1 mode on

  
  

   

NOW my main questions are:

1. in the real world datacenter. would you use such config (etherchannel trunks to your esx hosts) ?

2. For some reason my Vlans are not propogating to my ESX hosts, I suspect it is because of "switchport trunk native vlan 2".....any ideas.