Vmware Trunk Port Group and Dynamic Vlan

[Trinh Nguyen]

I need a VM appliance in Vmware that requires multi-Vlan trunk to up-link port.  I created a Trunk Port Group (TPG) in Vmware vDS that include all Vmware dynamic Vlans.  VM team connects the appliance to this TPG.  The appliance requires static IP addresses, and STATIC Vlans.

For instance: My EPG1 Vlan 100 mapped to VM Vlan 3000 inside ACI, so I configured my appliance IP address in interface Vlan 3000, and it works.   

My problem: VM team told me Vlan 3000 is dynamic and it will change when they do maintenance.  If this Vlan 3000 changes, my appliance will be disconnected.

Question: Can I make EPG1 static to Vlan 3000 inside ACI?  Or any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Trinh

[gmonroy]

Trinh,

    If you are referring to how ACI selects the VLAN to push down to the port group (and subsequently map to the EPG), there are methods to use a static VLAN depending on your version.

On older versions, the main methdo was through the usage of pre-provision which would require a static block of VLAN within the dynamic VLAN pool, at which point you had to specify that VLAN ID when associating the VMM domain to the EPG.

On later versions, the general association of VMM domain to EPG was enhanced to contain a section where you could specify a VLAN without beeding to use pro-provision.

-Gabriel

[Trinh Nguyen]

Gabriel,

Thanks for the suggestion. My ACI is 2.2(1o)

[gmonroy · Accepted solution]

Trinh,

    Then it should be possible to force the VLAN assignment by performing the following:

1. Go to the Dynamic VLAN pool associated to the AEP used for the VMM domain in question
2. Create a new VLAN block and set it to "Static Allocation". If the VLAN is already in a Dynaimc block, that block will have to be recreated so the new static VLAN can be removed.
3. On the EPG in question, go to the "Domains" section then search for the "Port Encap" field for the VMM domain association. Here, you can now place the vlan ID of the static blocked VLAN.

Snips for reference:

1 & 2:

3:

Port group VLAN usage (from VM Networking Tab):

Hope this helps!

-Gabriel

[Trinh Nguyen]

The provided solution is clearly explain and works.
Many thanks for the support.