C220 M3 1GB and 10GB connectivity?

[zykobot]

Hi All,

I've got a client who wishes to use a C220 M3 server for DMZ purposes.

The server will be running ESXi 5.0U1.

Question:

If I have a VIC card installed, can I also use the onboard NICs for traffic other than management?

For example:

NFS traffic to traverse the 10GB VIC Card.

DMZ IP Traffic through the 1GB onboard card.

(I know how to do this in vmware but it isn't clear in any documentation whether the 1GB connection can be manipulated for purposes other than Management (ie sharing LOM with the CIMC port)).

Nick.

[zykobot]

Further to this, ideal scenario would be:

CIMC port = OOB Traffic

Eth1 and Eth2 = DMZ IP Traffic and vmware MGMT

vNICs through VIC card = NFS traffic.

Is this achievable?

[Robert Burns]

Nick,

Yes that's completely fine.  There are two ways to run management traffic on C-series.  In "Dedicated", "Shared LOM" and "Cisco Card".

Dedicated CIMC operation uses the Management interface for management traffic.  The host (ESX) has no visibility to this interface whatsoever.

"Shared LOM" mirrors the CIMC traffic to first 1G LOM port.  You can separate the traffic by adding a VLAN tag to the management traffic (done via CIMC GUI).  Just have to ensure the upstream switchport allows this VLAN.  Again, the ESX host will have no idea management is traverse one of it's shared interfaces.  It just quietly piggy backs off the same interface.

"Cisco Card" does the same thing as "Shared LOM" but instead mirrors the traffic to the first VIC interface.  Same rules apply.

So your second post is completely feasible using CIMC in "Dedicated" mode.

Note: "vmware Management" is completely differerent than the server's "Management" traffic.  One is for the platform, and the other is for the host. 

Regards,

Robert

[zykobot]

Hi Robert,

Are there any guides on how to configure the C-Series NICs? Every guide I find references the CIMC mode you mention above.

My plan is to use the C240 M3 now which has onboard 4 x 1 GB NICs and get an additional 4 x 1GB NIC (BroadCom). The plan is to implement 2 x 4GB port-channels from the C240 to a Cisco Cat 3750.

I need to know that I can configure each of the 1GB NICs in trunk mode etc to do this but can't find any information on this.

Thanks,

Nick