VLANs and NIC Teaming

[jono1]

Hi All,

I have been browsing the forums to find out the correct way to configure NIC teaming for redundancy and VLAN 802.1q trunks. I have a network with 3 vlans (excluding management) 80, 81 & 82 and running 3 servers in seperate VMs connected to each VLAN. The ESX server is operating on an IBM Blade, running in a H Series chassis with 2 BNT ESM (Nortel) switches servicing the data side.

The 2 BNT switches are provisioned for redundancy and have an interconnection between them. They are connected to a number of other switches operating in a RSTP network.

The BNT switches are configured so

• the server interfaces are trunks, carrying VLANs 80,81,82. (No native vlan configured)

• RSTP is not enabled on these trunks

• an external trunk interconnection between switches to allow for switch failure

The ESX server is configured so

• The two NICS connected to the BNT switches are setup in an active/standby configuration

• Virtual Switch Tagging is used so each VM operating on a VLAN is only connected to one VLAN

• the physical NICs are using Beacon probing for redundancy

• Vlan80 is using beacon probing,vlan 81,82 are using link status

I am not sure if I should be using beacon probing or link status and where it should be configured. I have a feeling that I should only be using link status or perhaps I need to use a native VLAN with on the BNT swtiches for the beacon probing. Any help will be well recieved.

Jono

[AndreTheGiant]

Beacon probing doesn't work in all cases.

Use normal link detection (set a vSwitch level).

At portgroup level use only the function to order the NIC for loadbalancing/failover.

Andre

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[TupleSpace]

I have been doing similar research and found the following info and thought I would pass this on to others.

If you are planning on doing NIC teaming, make sure the load balancing methods match between the Switch and V-switch.

Using LACP with the following settings will be the most compatible:

IP-Source-Destination (IPhash) as the Load Balancing Method

Set the Trunk Native VLAN to something like 4094 that is not used anywhere else.

Do not use beacon probing with IP HASH load balancing.

Do not configure standby or unused uplinks with IP HASH load balancing.

VMware support only one EtherChannel per vSwitch or vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS).

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&e...

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2006/12/04/esx-server-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking/

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100407...