1000v uplink to Catalyst 4500

kerim mohammed · ‎02-08-2011

We have a 1000v switch uplinked to nexus 5K and Catalyst 4500 switches. I can see all the VEMs(ESX servers) connected to the nexus 5K uplink switch and everything seems working fine. However, I am not able to see the VEMs uplinked to Cisco Catalyst 4500 switch. The "show Module" command shows all VEMs connected to the nexus 5K uplink switches but not the Catalyst 4500 switches.The log file on the 1000V shows the following:

7 09:36:21 NX-1K-100 %VMS-5-DVS_HOSTMEMBER_INFO: A host with name=[IP ADD. OF ESX SERVER] and uuid=[34393232-3035-3255-5839-3430303
03537] is added to the dvs. The host is not found as a module in the VSM configuration.

If anyone have run into similar situation, plpease let me know how you handled it.

Thanks

abbharga · ‎02-08-2011

Hi,

A few things to check here:

1) Is the control VLAN defined on the 4500? And allowed on the trunk to which the ESX host uplink.

2) Seems like your ESX host on which the VSM resides is connected to the N5K, if so can you make sure the N5K and 4500 are l2 connected and also make sure the control vlan is allowed on the trunk between them and is not blocked (spanning-tree).

./Abhinav

kerim mohammed · ‎02-08-2011

Hi abbharga,

Thanks for the reply I am gonna do the checking as you suggested. Just one quick thing though, the communication between the VSM and VEM is considered layer 2 if the the hosts on which the VSM & the VEM running are in the same subnet??? or is there something I am missing? Please let me know what makes the communication between the VSM & VEM Layer 3 or 2? This really got me a bit confused. In our current setup the VSM is in a different management VLAN than the ESX server consol or management VLAN. The communication between the VSM & VEM is layer 2 in our case.Atleast that is what it says on our configuration.

abbharga · ‎02-08-2011

With you svs domain configured for L2, the communication between the VEM and VSM is L2.

./Abhinav

kerim mohammed · ‎02-10-2011

Hi bharga,

I did all the checking....

1) all important VLANS including the control vlan are not blocked (No STP issue)

2) The Nexus 5K and the 4500 switch are in layer layer 2 ( They are not directly connected but are in layer two domain or no hop between them)

3) the ESX Server hosting the VSM is connected to the Nexus 5K

Here is some of the show commands that i run on the 4500 switch that is connects the ESX server to the rest ofd the network:-

Catalyst-4500#sh spanning-tree interface gigabitEthernet 1/38

Vlan                Role Sts Cost      Prio.Nbr Type
------------------- ---- --- --------- -------- --------------------------------
VLAN0073            Desg FWD 4         128.38   P2p Edge
VLAN0074            Desg FWD 4         128.38   P2p Edge
VLAN0151            Desg FWD 4         128.38   P2p Edge
VLAN0152            Desg FWD 4         128.38   P2p Edge
VLAN0153            Desg FWD 4         128.38   P2p Edge
VLAN0165            Desg FWD 4         128.38   P2p Edge

Catalyst-4500#sh mac address-table interface gigabitEthernet 1/38
Multicast Entries
vlan    mac address     type    ports
-------+---------------+-------+--------------------------------------------
73    ffff.ffff.ffff   system Gi1/32,Gi1/38,Gi1/42,Gi1/45
74    ffff.ffff.ffff   system Gi1/38,Gi1/41,Gi1/45
151    ffff.ffff.ffff   system Gi1/3,Gi1/5,Gi1/6,Gi1/7,Gi1/9,Gi1/10,Gi1/11
                                Gi1/12,Gi1/14,Gi1/16,Gi1/17,Gi1/18,Gi1/19
                                Gi1/21,Gi1/22,Gi1/23,Gi1/25,Gi1/26,Gi1/27

I still don't see the VEM connected to port 1/38 of this switch on my nexus 1000v switch. The configuration file show exactly how many VEMs I have as shown below:

Nexus-1000v# sh running-config

host vmware id 34373030-3635-3255-5830-303630344
vem 4
host vmware id 34373030-3635-3255-5830-313130313
vem 5
host vmware id 34373030-3635-3255-5830-303630344
vem 6
host vmware id 34393232-3035-3255-5839-3134303537
vem 7
host vmware id 34373030-3635-3255-5830-313130313
vem 8
host vmware id 33393138-3335-5553-4539-31314e3438
vem 9
host vmware id 34393232-3035-3255-5839-3339303646
vem 10
host vmware id 34393232-3035-3255-5839-3430303035
vem 11
host vmware id 34393232-3035-3255-5839-3339303646

But the show module command on the nexus 1000v shows only those VEMs coonected to the Nexus 5K switches and not those connected to the Catalyst 4500 switches.

the uplink por-profile confguration on the Nexus 1000 V :

vmware port-group
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk native vlan 74
switchport trunk allowed vlan 73-74,151-153,165,180,811,813,815,817-822,824,826-831
channel-group auto mode on sub-group cdp
no shutdown
system vlan 74,180,811,819-821
state enabled

the corresponding interface on the 4500 switch :

interface GigabitEthernet1/38
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport trunk native vlan 74
switchport trunk allowed vlan 73,74,151-153,165,180,811,813,815,817-822,824
switchport trunk allowed vlan add 826-831
switchport mode trunk
mtu 9000
spanning-tree portfast trunk

I really appreciate in finiding out why I can't see the VEM (ESX Servers) connected to the 4500 switches.

Thanks

kerim mohammed · ‎02-14-2011

abbharga

Thank your response. Now everything is running fine.

abbharga · ‎02-14-2011

Hi Abdul,

I just got looking back at this and saw your response on this to be working now, which is a great news!

For the records, what made it work and what changes you had to do? Was cdp on the 4500 disabled?

./Abhinav

kerim mohammed · ‎02-15-2011

Hi abbharga,

First of thank you very much! you have been of great help. The problem was an uplink to the core from one of Nexus 5K where the ESX server hosting the VSM connected to. there was a duplex and speed mismatch. The strange thing was that on the Nexus 5K the uplink port was up and even all VLANs were in STP forwarding. However, on the Core (6500) the port indicated that line protocol was down so after fixing the the mismatch I was able to see all VEM modules. As you pointed out the important VLANs were blocked, though not by STP. Thanks again