Implmenting VLANs in VMWare for the first time

[jetjaguar15]

So we've had VMware in place for a while now, but our network has been a sore spot. We are now working to remedy that.

We have slowly begun to VLAN off parts of our network, which previously all ran in Vlan1.

So now I am working on setting up a Guest Wireless network and to VLAN that activity off.

But to get that setup, I need to allow the new guest VLAN to access our DHCP server, which is running on a ESX server with no Vlans currently setup.

The network layout is going to be like this:

Cisco 2702e WAP->3Com 4500G->Brocade ICX6610->Dell Powerconnect 5548->ESX 5.5 Server->VM running DHCP

I need to setup the VLANs in such a way that all the traffic that is still all in the native VLAN (VLAN 1) works, and also the VM running DHCP has one vlan'd interface just for the guest network that allows it to hand out addresses for the guest network scope.

I know I can via tagging and trunk ports I can handle the switch side of things up to the Dell switch, but I am very unsure as to how to set this up on the Dell switch and the ESX server.

I would appreciate any guidance anyone can give.

[rcporto]

If what you want achieve is just use the virtual machine with DHCP (on VLAN1) issuing IP address to the Guest network, you can just create a new scope for this new subnet and configure the IP Helper address in your router.

[jetjaguar15]

Ok, I see what you are saying here. But my concern is I want the DHCP server to only give out the new range of addresses to the guests only, and my thinking was I needed to isolate on Virtual interface on the DHCP server so that it was in the same subnet and VLAN as the guest network. Are you saying I don't need to do that?

[pterlisten]

Hi,

all you need is to set an IP helper address for the new VLAN and a corresponding DHCP scope on your DHCP. You DHCP doesn't need an interface in the new VLAN. It's important that your switch supports DHCP relay and that it can act as a DHCP relay. The switch will take the DHCP requests and forward them to the DHCP server. Before forwarding the request, the switch will add the IP of the ip interface that discovered the DHCP request to the GIADDR field in the DHCP request. This is used by the DHCP server to select to correct scope.