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jguzmanr
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

network trunking and automated install

We presently use 3.0.1 which we install thru kickstart. I want to do the same in 3.5, but with one (foreseeable) change, we now need to do vlan tagging. My esx hosts have 4 pnics, two go to one pswitch and the other two go to another pswitch. The following is my understanding, please correct me if I'm wrong. All four pnics would be configuired as trunks and each pair will be a channel. Now since they are trunked, I can't just assign an IP to one of the nics during kickstart and expect it to work because it won't be "vlan tagged". correct? If so, how do I continue to use kick start and accomplish what I want?

Another question is, can both etherchannels go to the same vswitch?

thanks

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glynnd1
Expert
Expert

Going to cut and paste some bits from my 3.5 kickstart script.

But some details on our enviroment first.

Each server has 6 pNICs, 2 onboard (pnic0 & 1) and one quad NIC card, of which we are using two (pnic2 & 3). There are two physical switches SWa and SWb. All four pNICs are on trunked ports. No etherchanneling is used.

##This is the line that assigns the IP address (10.142.172.1XX) to the Service Console. The only thing that should be really new here is the --vlanid

network --device eth0 --bootproto static --ip 10.142.172.1XX --netmask 255.255.255.0 --gateway 10.142.172.1 --nameserver 147.81.83.96 --hostname esxXX.corp.com addvmportgroup=0 *vlanid=472*

##We have two vSwitches. vSwitch0 is for the Service Console and VMotion, and uses pNICs 0 and 2. The Service Console is active/passive, while VMotion is passive/active, in other words the Service Console will use a particular pNIC but will fail over to the other when needs be. pnic0 goes to SWa, pnic2 goes to SWb.

echo "Configuring vSwitch0 for two NICs supporting Service Console & VMotion in an active/standby & standby/active"

echo "Adding second NIC to vSwitch0"

esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic0 vSwitch0

vmware-vim-cmd internalsvc/refresh_network

esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic0 vSwitch0

esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic2 vSwitch0

echo "Creating VMotion portgroup"

esxcfg-vswitch --add-pg VMotion vSwitch0

esxcfg-vswitch --vlan 473 --pg VMotion vSwitch0

echo "Configuring VMotion IP setting"

esxcfg-vmknic --add VMotion --ip 10.142.173.1XXXX --netmask 255.255.255.0

echo "Enabling VMotion"

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set vmk0

vmware-vim-cmd internalsvc/refresh_network

echo "Setting Service Console portgroup to active/standby"

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicorderpolicy-active vmnic0 vSwitch0 "Service Console"

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicorderpolicy-standby vmnic2 vSwitch0 "Service Console"

echo "Setting VMotion portgroup standby/active"

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicorderpolicy-active vmnic2 vSwitch0 VMotion

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set --nicorderpolicy-standby vmnic0 vSwitch0 VMotion

vmware-vim-cmd internalsvc/refresh_network

##vSwitch1 is assigned pnic1 & 3 and uses them in an active/active arrangement to provide bandwidth and redundancy. pnic1 goes to SWa, pnic3 goes to SWb.

echo "Creating vSwitch1 which will host the main networking VLANs"

esxcfg-vswitch --add vSwitch1

vmware-vim-cmd internalsvc/refresh_network

esxcfg-vswitch --link=vmnic1 vSwitch1

esxcfg-vswitch --link=vmnic3 vSwitch1

vmware-vim-cmd internalsvc/refresh_network

esxcfg-vswitch --unlink=vmnic1 vSwitch1

esxcfg-vswitch --unlink=vmnic3 vSwitch1

vmware-vim-cmd internalsvc/refresh_network

esxcfg-vswitch --link=vmnic1 vSwitch1

esxcfg-vswitch --link=vmnic3 vSwitch1

vmware-vim-cmd internalsvc/refresh_network

##Repeat the last two line for as many VLANs / portgroups as you need.

echo "Creating portgroups and adding VLANs on vSwitch1"

echo "Creating port group for VLAN 2"

esxcfg-vswitch --add-pg VLAN_friendly_name vSwitch1

esxcfg-vswitch --vlan 2 --pg VLAN_friendly_name vSwitch1

##Hope this helps.

jguzmanr
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

this is very helpful, thanks

but before it can run the script, I have to download it first. How can I vlan tag the packets that go to the http server and downloads the script?

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glynnd1
Expert
Expert

I missed that bit that you are installing from HTTP, we install from CD.

I'm not fully versed on this, but you need to looking in the "Native VLAN". In my example I am using VLAN 472, you would need to have this VLAN labeled as the Native VLAN. This means that any untagged frames will be placed on this VLAN, thus enabling you to do a HTTP install, I think.

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jguzmanr
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Enthusiast

yes, that is what I heard from another source.

thanks!

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