LLDP issues

[jedijeff]

Hello. I have a Distributed Switch with LLDP enabled. 2 Clusters are using this swtich. Both clusters are IBM 3850s with Emulex 10gb nics. One cluster LLDP works perfectly. The other cluster, every host displays "Link Layer Discovery Protocol is not available on this physical adapter".

The only difference I can tell between the hosts in the 2 clusters, is that even though each of the Emulex 10gb cards runs the "be2net" driver, the cards seem slightly different. So even though they listed as emulex 10gb from the vendor. Looking up the VID and DID they are different. One is an OCE10102, the other is an IBM Virtual Fabric.

I guess I dont understand, that since the drivers are the same LLDP should work? Correct?

Thanks!

[rickardnobel · Accepted solution]

jedijeff wrote:

I guess I dont understand, that since the drivers are the same LLDP should work? Correct?

That seems reasonable, it should not be anything else to configure on the vSphere side to configure than to enable the feature.

On your physical switches, are you sure LLDP is enabled on the other cluster?

And do you see any incoming LLDP from the ESXi hosts on the switch ports?

[jedijeff]

Well i *think* i found the issue, but wont know until monday when i flash. Basically since these are OEM cards, I had to use vmkchdev to get the vendor and system ids of the card, and then match them up in the HCL site to see what they were. Then I went to manufacturer to find firmware. The system that works is 4.x,,,the system that doesnt is 2.x. ethtool was able to give me the firmware information on the cards. they are both emulex 10gb, but slightly different models. So i am hoping a current flash on the 2.x may fix the issue i am seeing. i will post my results. thanks!

[rickardnobel]

Did the firmware update resolve your issue?

[jedijeff]

Oh yes it did! I am sorry I forgot to post back. So our network guys are very happy now that I will be able to get lldp on all our 10gb links on all these hosts.

[rickardnobel]

That is nice! Thanks for reporting back, good to have the solution searchable in the future.