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adi_dragomir
Contributor
Contributor

Cisco Nexus 1000V implementation

I am trying to implement a Cisco Nexus 1000V switch. I read all the documentation from the Cisco website and I even watch the videos. I worked with my VMware environment for a long time using just normal vSwitches without problems but I have to admit the implementation of the Cisco switch let me in the dark. There are a lot of gaps and no explanations why I should do whatever step. I expect to have a knowledge base document from the VMware where to be clearly specify the requirements for the VMware environments when you implement a Cisco Nexus 1000V switch. I have a working VMware DataCenter environment with normal Layer 2 switches and I would like to implement a Cisco Nexus 1000V switch and I do not know for example what kind of physical switches I need, how many extra physical NICs I need for every ESX host with VEM, how I should configure the networking physical and virtual environment for the ESX host with VSM (Cisco documentation about that is very poor and confusing). These informations should come from VMware because I will first setup the VMware environment. For configuring the Cisco Nexus 1000V switch I'll go after to the Cisco website.

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29 Replies
MauroBonder
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

not can be native vlan 1

create any vlan and set how native vlan

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adi_dragomir
Contributor
Contributor

Mauro,

What do you mean? During VSM installation the only allowed numbers for vSwitch0 native vlan is bigger than 0, between 1-3097 or something.

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MauroBonder
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

what is your VLAN ?

do not exist vlan id 0 (vlan 0 is equal that none)

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adi_dragomir
Contributor
Contributor

my VLAN ID is none for vSwitch0, that means zero and I cannot put zero or none during the VSM installation.

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MauroBonder
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

you need change a vlan id of vswitch 0.

the vlan id need be a same of VSM.

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adi_dragomir
Contributor
Contributor

If I change the vlan ID I will loose connection with the VSM machine.

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lwatta
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

The problem is that your switch does not support vlans or vlan tagging. In this case don't put a vlan for anything. Everything will ride over the native vlan.

For the N1KV you will need to change your uplink port-profile from "switchport mode trunk" to "switchport mode access". I'll have to play around in my lab to see if this will work. I'm not sure we allow the control network to use the native vlan on the VSM, but in the mean time you can try the following.

control and packet vlans should be set to 1 on the VSM

n1000v-MV# show svs domain

SVS domain config:

Domain id: 1254

Control vlan: 1

Packet vlan: 1

L2/L3 Control mode: L2

L3 control interface: NA

Your uplink port-profile will need to look like

port-profile type ethernet Uplink

vmware port-group

switchport mode access

no shutdown

system vlan 1

state enabled

I'm not sure this is going to work. But based off everything you have said its how I would try to configure it. I'll try and give it a shot in my lab. Do you have access to a switch that supports vlans?

louis

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adi_dragomir
Contributor
Contributor

No, it did not work :(...but tomorrow I'll get a D-Link DGS-3100-48 layer 2 managed switch which it supposed to support VLANs but I have no idea how to configure it. We'll see tomorrow...

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adi_dragomir
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

Finally I did it. It was the VUM which couldn't install the VEM module on the ESX host. I used the esxupdate to install VEM and everything was fine after.

Thanks, guys.

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RichardPugh
Contributor
Contributor

Adi,

     Did you ever get the 1000v to work using "none" for the vlans or did you introduce a VLAN capable L2 switch?

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