Present additional VLAN - vSphere Standard Switch

[bchizumkina]

Hello everyone.

I currently have two Exchange servers, both with NIC's that sit on the same IP range. ("abc")

I need to add secondary NIC's to each server, but the IP's need to sit on a different VLAN than the existing boxes.("xyz") (Redundancy is the goal here.)

How do I present the "new" VLAN ("xyz") to our vSphere ESXi 5.0 environment so that it's an option when adding a standard switch, instead of only "None (0)" or "All (4095)?"

Thanks for the time.

-Brandon

[BenLiebowitz · Accepted solution]

First, the NICs connected to your ESXi host, are the in a specific vLAN or are they trunked to allow multiple vLANs? 

If they are set to a specific vLAN, they you have 2 choices. 

1) Add another 1-2 NICs per ESXi host and connect them to the new vLAN.  Create a new portgroup for the new vlan and add nics to your VM(s) for this portgroup. 

2) Have your network team switch the port settings to TRUNK and to allow both vLANs.  You'll then need to modify your existing portgroups with the proper vLAN ID, including your management, & storage portgroups. 

** Both of these options will most likely require downtime, or to migrate all VMs off the host to make the changes. **

If your ports are currently setup TRUNK, then the network team just has to allow access to the new vlan and you need to create a new portgroup for that new vlan. 

Hope this helps!

[bchizumkina]

Thank you for the response, Ben.

The host NIC's are trunked; allowing access to the new vlan is where I'm stuck.

Do I "add" the vlan as a standard switch option using the ESXi command line - (I can ping a server on that vlan/subnet from the host) - or do I present the vlan, somehow, to the host from our Cisco switch?

[weinstein5]

WHat you would do is add a Virtual Machine Port group to the existing vswitch and assign the vlan to that and if the physical is trinked properly it will work,

[bchizumkina]

Thank you both for responding.

[BenLiebowitz]

If the physical port on the cisco switch is trunked and allows access to all vLANs, then there is nothing you need to do.  If not, you'll need to go into terminal mode on the switch, select the interface(s) you need to chagne and use the command switchport trunk allowed vlan add 7 (where 7 is the new vlan you want to add)

Here's an article that explains it.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-2218

If you have a network team, they should know how to configure this for you. 

Once thats done, you need to go into the VI Client, go to the Virtual Switch, and add a portgroup for Virtual Machine network. 

Good luck.