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sc_2111
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

VLAN Tagging Issue with IBM x240 Flexsystem

I'm installing esxi 5.5 on three IBM x240 flexsystem blades ,with IBM 1Gb blade switches .

I'm more used to HP blade ssyetms but as far as the blade switch is concerned they are using the same hardware and software , so the configuration is almost identical .

Here is the setup

We have for each blade the following configuration:

- Since the 1GB switch does not support Virtual NIC each blade see only two NIC connected ( one for each 1Gb Switch )

- We created one virtual switch in vmware using those two nics.

- We have the following VLAN

     1(default) Vlan for VM traffic

     200          VLAN for esxi console

     110          VLAN for vmotion

- We have configured the console vmkernel to not tagging , as we have configured the switch port's PVID to be 200.

- We have configured the vmotion vmkernel to VLAN 110

- We have configured the VM portgroup to use VLAN 1

The problem is that it look like esxi is not tagging  or , more probably , that there's a problem with the underlying NIC that fails to correctly handle the TAG.

The outcome is that even the VMOTION traffic does not succeed , reporting that it fails to contact the other host .

Has anyone experienced the same issue ?

thanks

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9 Replies
f10
Expert
Expert

Hi,

Can you share the screenshot (GUI) for VLAN show for VLAN 110, 200 with the corresponding internal/external ports?

-f10

http://highoncloud.blogspot.in/

About VMware Virtualization on NetApp

Regards, Arun Pandey VCP 3,4,5 | VCAP-DCA | NCDA | HPUX-CSA | http://highoncloud.blogspot.in/ If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".
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sc_2111
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

vlan.JPG

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f10
Expert
Expert

Is it just the vMotion traffic that fails or none of the VLANs work? I see that you have specifically pointed out vMotion VLAN.

What network is your vCenter VM connected to? Is it also in the same network as VLAN 200? I hope you can see the Green Link on the INT & EXT ports that you have mentioned.

-f10

http://highoncloud.blogspot.in/

About VMware Virtualization on NetApp

Regards, Arun Pandey VCP 3,4,5 | VCAP-DCA | NCDA | HPUX-CSA | http://highoncloud.blogspot.in/ If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".
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sc_2111
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Is also the VM traffic ( VLAN 1 ) that fails .

It seems that the only traffic that goes thru is the one of the PVID ( in my case Vlan 200 ) assigned to the INT port .

Yes , all the port are GREEN , in fact I can reach the ESXi console from the network

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naeemakhtar12
Contributor
Contributor

Change your uplink to dedicated mode, shared mode doesnt strip off the internal VLAN tags. See IBM NOS 7.7 guide and search dedicated and shared uplink. I hope this will resolve your issue.

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sc_2111
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I searched on the 7.7 Doc but it says the "shared or dedicated " are option for the switch 4093 ( 10Gb ) We have the 2092 (which does not support virtual fabric )

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f10
Expert
Expert

Hi,

Have you created a Trunk Group for the external ports for EXT1 and EXT2. You may also isolate this by using only one EXT port for troubleshooting.

-f10

http://highoncloud.blogspot.in/

About VMware Virtualization on NetApp

Regards, Arun Pandey VCP 3,4,5 | VCAP-DCA | NCDA | HPUX-CSA | http://highoncloud.blogspot.in/ If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".
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sc_2111
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yes we have trunks between the IBM switches and the HP .

I also tried to use only one EXT port , but made no differences .

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chimera
Contributor
Contributor

Hey mate, did you ever find a resolution to this???  We are having exactly the same issue - IBM blade switches to HP Procurve switch, can't get the tagging working on 3 of 5 blades.  Strangely 2 of the blades work, we can't work out why the others don't as there is no difference in the configuration between all blades (running VMWare 5.5, latest patches) that we can see

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