The networking team has requested to have a dedicated network for iSCSI traffic. This task has been assigned to the vSphere Administrator. What is the VMware-recommended way to accomplish this?

Creating a custom IP stack is an advanced configuration used for specific routing scenarios such as vMotion isolation, and is not the standard VMware recommendation for iSCSI network dedication.

Configuring the correct subnet alone is insufficient - without static routes, ESXi cannot determine which VMkernel adapter to use for iSCSI traffic when multiple VMkernel adapters exist on different subnets.

VMware best practice for iSCSI networking specifies that iSCSI VMkernel adapters should not have a default gateway assigned. Instead, static routes must be configured on each ESXi host to route iSCSI traffic through the dedicated iSCSI network. This prevents iSCSI traffic from leaking onto other networks and ensures proper isolation of the storage traffic.

Defining a dedicated gateway on the iSCSI VMkernel is explicitly against VMware guidance, as having a gateway on the iSCSI VMkernel can cause routing conflicts and allow iSCSI traffic to traverse unintended network paths.