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ThatVaiGuy
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Vlans, DHCP, Subnets, Gateways and Multipathing Setup Question

Hi, I have a home VI3 test network configured like this:

Netgear Wireless Router,

Wireless Gaming adapter Plugged into Port A1 of HP Procurve 4000M Layer 2 Switch with 802.1Q (Provides the uplink to my upstairs router which services internet

Default Vlan 1 is 192.168.1.X/24

On this switch, I have 2 ESX boxes with 4 Nics each, Openfiler for iSCSI targets and a Windows XP Pro box running my Virtual Center.

I have a Virtual Machine running SBS2003 with also acts as my DNS server and my DHCP server.

SBS2003 - 192.168.1.6

Gateway (Netgear Router) 192.168.1.1

ESX1 -192.168.1.10

ESX2 - 192.168.1.11

XP Pro - 192.168.1.50

Okay, with that out of the way, my question is that I want to setup VLans on my Procurve switch to segregate Default network traffic, iSCSI traffic and vMotions. Per the ESX server best practices. in order to setup a second vKernel Nic or SVC console Nic, they have to be on a seperate subnet with a gateway defined. If I create a new vLAN for iSCSI and assign a nic to it, traffic from that network will not be able to see my gateway. I also need my DHCP server to receive requests from any computer on any particular vLAN and issue a corresponding IP Address.

Now, what do I do? If I create a second or Tirtiary vLAN, I'm not able to see the DHCP server from those vLANS? I can only untag a port into 1 vLAN, and Tagging the port drops all connection to my DHCP server. On this switch I did assign IP addresses to the individual vlans, but this didn't help. DHCP is not bradcasting across multiple vLANS. Am I missing a piece of hardware to provide ACLs or something?

I'm not sure where to go from here, Please help.

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Steve_Tron
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Hi,

To route between vlans you need either a layer 3 switch or a router configured as 'a router on a stick' which is basically a port on the switch, configured as a trunk, connected to the router which is in turn configured with a number of sub interfaces, one for each vlan so that it can route traffic between vlans. Now creating a VLAN for VMotion traffic is fine as that does not need to be routed. The VLAN for iSCSI and the VLAN for the Service console will need to be routed for iSCI to work correctly. DHCP can work across multple VLAN but needs IP helpers to be configured on the switch.

Regards

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Steve_Tron
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Hi,

To route between vlans you need either a layer 3 switch or a router configured as 'a router on a stick' which is basically a port on the switch, configured as a trunk, connected to the router which is in turn configured with a number of sub interfaces, one for each vlan so that it can route traffic between vlans. Now creating a VLAN for VMotion traffic is fine as that does not need to be routed. The VLAN for iSCSI and the VLAN for the Service console will need to be routed for iSCI to work correctly. DHCP can work across multple VLAN but needs IP helpers to be configured on the switch.

Regards

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ThatVaiGuy
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Steve, thank you so much for that. It's kind of what I thought, and after hearing you describe what I need to do it makes much more sense. I suppose for my needs as a test environment, I can just allow all traffic to traverse the same network. Is the "router on a stick" functionality a more affordable alternative to a Layer-3 switch? Also, can this "router on a stick" method be performed with a home router like a Netgear or a Linksys? My guess is no, but I suppose what I'm really getting at is what do I need to search for to find a router that will do this?

Thanks,

Eddie Middlebrooks

Future VCP

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Steve_Tron
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Eddie,

I dont think your home router will have the functionality. However you could get what you need from ebay cheaply as I have done in the past. All you would need is Cisco switch (if yours didnt have the functionality) say a 2950 (it needs to have 100mbit ports and support vlans) and a Cisco router something also with a 100mb port, a 2610 should do. I've attached a diagram of what the resulting network would look like, it hope it helps.

Regards

Steve

PS your dsl router should have route back to the router on a stick to ensure that VM's can reach the Internet

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