I really want to be able to use VLANs with VMs on my 2 ESXi servers, but there's something not working as I'd expect. I think I've configured it in a sane manner, but I may well have done/not done something stupid. I've configured each of the VMware ESXi 6.7 servers, with a virtual switch (vSwitch0) that has 4 physical NICs, for redundancy (though only 1 port is live).
There are various port groups attached to vSwitch0, each with a separate VLAN ID, except the management & vm networks, which I assume just use the native VLAN(1) of the physical switch port(s) that the NICs are connected to.
Each Port group / VLAN is configured thusly
I've installed some VMs, to which I've added a NIC per network, trying to debug the network issue - here's one
Here's its CLI with its network config & some pings to known good IPs & the results of "arp -a", showing good results on ens160 (the non-VLAN'd VM network), and no network visibilty on ens161 (the LeasedLine WAN (VLAN58))
Now I know that all this screams at a physical switch problem, but the ESX VLAN config is new to me and I'd really appreciate some confirmation of the sanity & validity of my ESXi networking configuration, from some VMware officianados.
The switches are a mixture of Cisco (WS-C2960S-48TS-S), most distant from the ESX hosts, then a Dell (PCT6248), then a Dell (PC8024), into which the ESXi servers are connected. They all have the interconnects set as LAGs (in Dell-speak) & Port-Channels (in Cisco-speak). Essentially, debugging the 10Gb switch is not easy, as the only things connected to it is the ESXi hosts. The interconnects are set as "switchport mode trunk" (Ciscos), or "switchport mode general" (Dell) - the ports that the ESXi NICs are plugged into, are also set to "switchport mode general".
Hello there and welcome to the community
Your ESXi configuration looks good but does depend on what you the pSwitch configuration set to. At the moment you are using "Route based on originating port ID" which is perfectly fine depending on your requirements.
My potential concern would be that you mention LAGs and Port-Channels - if this was referring to the 4 pNics being configured in either a LAG or Port-Channel then this could be the smoking gun you are seeking. Can you confirm this first please? I'm thinking you are referring to how the pSwitches are connected together but don't want to make this assumption
Kind regards.
Hi & thanks for the welcome!
Yes, the LAGs & PortChannels are inter-switch links. The links between the 4x ESXi NICs associated with the vSwitches & the pSwitch ports, are standard switch ports, but are set to Dell’s “mode general”, which is I believe, synonymous to Cisco’s “mode trunk”, allowing all VLAN-tagged traffic, and the native VLAN, un-tagged.
If you are able could you upload the configuration for one of the ports on the pSwitch?
Thanks!