ESXI 6.5 - SAN VLAN Not communicating to SW or SAN

[AdamBingley]

Hi there,

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction - been working on this issue for hours to no avail.

We have just installed a ESXI Host running 6.5 and also a NetApp AFF200 (SAN)

They are connected to each other via an ARUBA 3810M 10G Switch

However, the SAN VLAN in which they are connected does not seem to work, at least on the vmware side.

SAN VLAN 300 is untagged on ports 9,10,11,12, the SAN is plugged into ports 11 & 12 and the Host into 9 & 10.

The SAN has been configured correctly and can ping the switch via the SAN VLAN

The Host however, cannot ping the switch or the SAN and therefore cannot mount the data stores from the SAN. the ping was done via the following command vmkping -I vmk2 172.16.1.1   

vmk2 being the vmkernel nic with the address 172.16.1.50

Steps Done on the VMWARE side for the SAN network.

1) Created a new virtual switch.

2) Created a port group named SAN on VLAN 300 (VLAN 300 being the SAN VLAN)

3) Added a VMKERNEL NIC on port group SAN on IP address 172.16.1.50

Any assistance would be grateful as I am stumped.

Thanks

Adam

[a_p_]

Created a port group named SAN on VLAN 300

You said that the physical switch ports are "untagged". Can you confirm that you did not set the VLAN ID on the virtual port group?

André

[AdamBingley]

I did set the VLAN to 300 on the port group, however I have also tried setting the VLAN ID to 0 also, neither worked.

[AdamBingley]

I did set the VLAN to 300 on the port group, however I have also tried setting the VLAN ID to 0 also, neither worked.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

VLAN ID 0 (i.e. no VLAN ID set) on the virtual port group is what you want to do with untagged physical ports.

The untagged port on the physical switch will already remove the VLAN information from incoming packets, so that the virtual port group will not be aware of VLAN 300, and forward the packet to only port groups with no VLAN ID set.

If you can't find any incorrect setting on the virtual, or physical switch, you may try to use e.g. a notebook with a free IP address in the SAN range, and connect it directly to the ESXi host's NIC port to see whether you can ping between the VMkernel port group, and the notebook (make sure that the notebook's firewall doesn't block ICMP traffic).

André

[AdamBingley]

Hi Andre,

Thanks for your reply - still no luck.

Tried setting the VLAN ID to 0 - Didnt work.

Tried changing the ports on the switch to be tagged and the port group to 300 - Didnt work.

Your suggestion wouldn't work either, its 10gig connections via SFP+ ports so cant plug in a laptop etc.

The SAN works so i don't understand why the VMware doesn't

[a_p_]

What vendor/model of 10gig network adapter do you use, and which driver (version/build) for it is installed on the host?

There have been some issues with the native driver (see e.g. ESXi 6.0/6.5 and Intel X710 NIC Problem | Virtual Allan) which requires an update.

André

[RickVerstegen]

Did you also setup Jumbo Frames correctly? (End to end). Verify physical cables and up to date drivers for the network adapter.

[AdamBingley]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, managed to get this working now, it was a combination of setting up the Trunks on the switch & making sure its vlan tagg was 0 and not 300.