LACP on secondary VEM

[bergroth71]

Hi

We are evaluating the NEXUS 1k as we would like to use LACP on the uplinks to our  VM-ware hosts.

I'm able to configure LACP to the VEM that is on the same host as the VSM.

Enabling it on another host with only VEM will bring the interfaces  to that host down and the VSM looses connection to that VEM.

The only way to get connectivity to that host again is to remove the LCAP configuration from the physical switch.

As a try I used a spare nic in each host and connected them togeather and configure those interfaces to run the control and packet VLAN.

Now I could get LACP to work to both hosts. But the moment I unplug the extra cable running the control and packet VLAN the links running LACP goes down.

It seems to me that the VSM is the one that generates the LACP packets and  not the VEM. But the VEM can't get connectivty to the VSM until the links with LACP is established and before it's established the VEM can't get the LCAP packets from the VSM to enabling the link. Hence a catch 22.

Is there a solution to this?

The switch we are using i a Juniper EX4200 with all spaningtree disabled

Kindly

Magnus Bergroth

[abbharga]

Hi Magnus,

Just want to make sure you are using mode active on both the sides. Also can you post the uplink port-profile configuration from the VSM and also the configuration from one of the uplink interface.

If there is no specific reasons for using LACP, you can try using port-channel using mode on or even look at the mac-pinning option.

./Abhinav

[abbharga]

Also one more thing..if you are carrying the control and packet traffic via the same port channel, following are the recommended spanning tree configurations on the uplink switch where the ESX interface connect -

- spanning-tree portfast trunk
–spanning-tree bpdufilter enable

Refer the 2nd last bullet point under guidelines and limitations.

[bergroth71]

Hi,

The config of the uplinks

port-profile type ethernet n1kv-uplink0
  vmware port-group
  switchport mode trunk
  switchport trunk allowed vlan 1-2,17-18
  channel-group auto mode active
  no shutdown
  system vlan 1-2,17-18
  state enabled
port-profile type ethernet n1kv-uplink1
  vmware port-group
  switchport mode trunk
  switchport trunk allowed vlan 1-2,17-18
  channel-group auto mode active
  no shutdown
  system vlan 1-2,17-18
  state enabled

interface port-channel1
  inherit port-profile n1kv-uplink0

interface port-channel2
  inherit port-profile n1kv-uplink0

interface port-channel3
  inherit port-profile n1kv-uplink1

interface Ethernet3/1
  no cdp enable
  inherit port-profile n1kv-uplink0
  sub-group-id 0

interface Ethernet3/3
  no cdp enable
  inherit port-profile n1kv-uplink0
  sub-group-id 0

interface Ethernet3/6
  inherit port-profile control-packet

interface Ethernet4/1
  inherit port-profile n1kv-uplink1
  sub-group-id 0

interface Ethernet4/3
  inherit port-profile n1kv-uplink1
  sub-group-id 0

And the setup of the juniper switch:

interfaces {

    ge-0/0/2 {
        description "lab-esx1 uplink";
        ether-options {
            802.3ad ae2;
        }
    }

    ge-0/0/13 {
        description "lab-esx2 4/3 uplink";
        ether-options {
            802.3ad ae3;
        }
    }

    ge-1/0/2 {
        description "lab-esx1 uplink";
        ether-options {
            802.3ad ae2;
        }
    }

    ge-1/0/13 {
        description "lab-esx2 4/1 uplink";
        ether-options {
            802.3ad ae3;
        }
    }

    ae2 {
        description lab-esx1;
        aggregated-ether-options {
            minimum-links 1;
            link-speed 1g;
            lacp {
                active;
                periodic fast;
            }
        }
        unit 0 {
            family ethernet-switching {
                port-mode trunk;
                vlan {
                    members [ v17 v18 v3260 v21 v19 v20 v2 ];
                }
                native-vlan-id v1;
            }
        }
    }
    ae3 {
        description lab-esx2;
        traceoptions {
            flag event;
        }
        aggregated-ether-options {
            minimum-links 1;
            link-speed 1g;
            lacp {
                active;
                periodic fast;
            }
        }
        unit 0 {
            family ethernet-switching {
                port-mode trunk;
                vlan {
                    members [ v17 v18 v19 v20 v21 v3260 v2 ];
                }
                native-vlan-id v1;
            }
        }
    }

protocols {
    igmp-snooping {
        vlan all;
    }
    stp {
        disable;
    }
    rstp {
        disable;
    }
    lldp {
        disable;
        interface all;
    }
    lldp-med {
        disable;
        interface all;
    }
}

And yes we are running the control and packet vlan on the same port channel. As you can see from the configuration in the juniper switch we have disbale stp and rstp. So the ports doesn't go into STP states.

The only reason for us looking in to using the Nexus switch is to use the LACP feature. We would like to have a protocol monitoring the ethernet links and not only depend on link up and down. For example if a switch stops forwarding packets but the ports are still up it's good to have LACP removing the links to that switch.

<<Magnus