AVS in VLAN and VXLAN-mode

[Torbjorn Grindhaug]

Hi,

I'm currently trying to figure out from this guide: "http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus1000/avs/reference-guide/L4-L7-services/Cisco_AVS_L4-L7_White_Paper.html" if there is a possibility to within the same vCenter Datacenter to use the AVS in VXLAN mode for some hosts, and another AVS in VLAN mode for some other hosts. Our intention is to leverage ACI L4-L7 services supported on AVS in VLAN mode only (ASAv).

Torbjørn

[dpita · Accepted solution]

Hello

Thanks for using SupportForums. 

Short answer is yes! absolutely!

You should be able to deploy those two AVS, one in VXLAN and one it VLAN mode under the same vCenter Datacenter. The only limitation is that a single ESXI host can only be a part of a single AVS at a time. An ESXI host cannot run two AVS instances at a time. 

Simply create a VMM domain for AVS in VXLAN mode and then create a second AVS pointing to the same vCenter and Datacenter in VLAN mode. Add hosts to the different AVS as needed. 

[Torbjorn Grindhaug]

Hello, I have now successfully configured one of the hosts with AVS-VLAN and successfully migrated guests between AVS-switch in VXLAN-mode and VLAN-mode and back again. Thank you for your assistance! Torbjørn

[Robert Burns]

Torbjorn,

Not to complicate things, but in the upcoming 2.1 release we are adding support for multiple ecap modes per AVS VMM domain. So you could use VXLAN for some EPGs and VLAN for other EPGs all bound to the same AVS VMM domain.  You'll be able to configure both mcast & VLAN pool on your VMM domain, and optional set the default encap type.

ETA is still a few months out (tentatively).

Cheers,

Robert

[Robert Burns]

Is there any reason you can't use a single AVS w/ VLAN mode? I'd like to understand the requirement of operating two AVSs in different modes.

Robert

[Torbjorn Grindhaug]

We already have AVS in VXLAN running in production, primarily to reduce the amount of VLANs needed on the UCS' and so on, and we later on discovered that this mode was not compatible with for instance the ASAv in L4-L7 services in ACI. There does not seem to be an easy way to switch from VLAN to VXLAN mode afterwards.

[Robert Burns]

I see.  No, there currently isn't any way to auto-switch from one AVS to the other.  You would need to migrate VMs off some hosts, remove them from AVS-VXLAN, add that host to AVS-VLAN, then migrate VMs back - repeat for each additional host. 

Robert

[Torbjorn Grindhaug]

For this to work would I then first follow the procedure Daniel provided in his reply?

I have now carried out the creation of the new vCenter domain with the AVS-switch in VLAN mode and I can see in my vCenter that the new vSwitch was populated.

My next question might be a bit off-topic, but regarding the AEPs used in the VXLAN vSwitch I have a couple of AEPs for my UCS pods representing the VPC-interfaces going to the FI's. The question then is if these AEPs also should be part of the new vCenter domain I just created if I want to run the AVS VLAN mode switches on my UCS-B's?

Torbjørn

[dpita]

Yes go ahead and follow my original procedure, since you already see the VLAN-AVS pushed to vCenter, add the necessary hosts as you normally would.

Regarding the AEP:

If the VXLAN and VLAN AVS hosts are behind the same UCSB, then yes use the same AEP and vPC interface policy group. 

Hope that helps!

[Torbjorn Grindhaug]

Thank you both for your feedback so far! I will have to look further into this in the next week.

Torbjørn