Nexus 1000V design on blade

[Edokial_Infrastructure]

Hello.

I installed Cisco N1KV on my ESX 4.1U1 vmware cluster.

Only vmnics for management are currently connected to the VSM.

Each host is composed of 4 vmnics, each of them are connected to a different uplink Switch.

I tried to configure but I'm not sure this is correct :

The uplink profile :

        port-profile type ethernet Uplink-Mgmt

  vmware port-group

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,3,86,88,300

  channel-group auto mode on sub-group manual

  no shutdown

  system vlan 1,3,86,88,300

  description "Management + DMZ"

  state enabled

All of the vmnics are configured as follow :

interface Ethernet3/1

  inherit port-profile Uplink-Mgmt

  no shutdown

  sub-group-id 0

interface Ethernet3/2

  inherit port-profile Uplink-Mgmt

  no shutdown

  sub-group-id 1

Before entering production mode, I would like to know how I can configure Port-channel in VSM.

In fact, I've read the Cisco guides but they don't correspond to my situation exactly.

What do you think about this configuration ?

Thanks.

[Robert Burns]

For your topology where you have mulitple (non-clustered) switches, you should be using sub-group type "mac-pinning".  This will mimic similar behavior to the vSwitch when multiple uplinks are connected.  Mac-pinning will accomodate up to 32 uplinks, automatically assigning each NIC to it's own sub-group.  This is far simpler than manually setting the sub-group ID.

Follow this flow chart for uplink methods.

Regards,

Robert

[Edokial_Infrastructure]

Thanks for your help.

I will change my configuration on next monday.

I will tell you if it is OK.

[Edokial_Infrastructure]

I changed my VSM configuration like roberbur explained to me.

There is no problem at this moment.

An other question...

I would like know if a vlan (id 85 for example) can be configured as a system vlan in 2 ethernet port-profiles.

Can you answer me ?

[Robert Burns]

So this is a very good question.

A system VLAN can be configured in multiple ethernet or vethernet port profiles - HOWEVER, you can't configure a host to use two uplink ethernet port-profiles that allow the same VLAN and/or System VLAN. 

Ex.  Host has four interfaces and the following VLANs:

VLAN 10 - VMotion

VLAN 20 - System traffic (Control, Packet etc)

VLAN 30 - Management

VLAN 40 - VM Data

User has configured two port profiles to divide the uplink traffic

port-profile type ethernet system-uplink (for vmnic0 & vmnic1)

  vmware port-group

  switchport trunk allowed vlan 10,20,30

  switchport mode trunk

  channel-group auto mode on mac-pinning

  no shutdown

  system vlan 20,30

  state enabled

port-profile type ethernet data-uplink (for vmnic 2 & vmnic3)

  vmware port-group

  switchport trunk allowed vlan 30,40

  switchport mode trunk

  channel-group auto mode on mac-pinning

  no shutdown

  system vlan 30

  state enabled

**This would cause a switching decision problem for the 1000v.  VLAN 30 is allowed on both uplink profiles & these two profiles are in use by the SAME host. 

Solutions:

- Either ONLY allow VLAN 30 on one of the Uplink port profiles or

- Configure the host to use only one of the Uplink port profiles, and allow all VLANs on it.

The fact they may be system VLANs is irrelevant as long as they follow the rule above. No issue with the same system vlans existing in multiple port profiles.

Regards,

Robert