Nexus 1010 VSM does not see VEM (DPA service not running....)

[dumlutimuralp]

Hi all,

I have the attached topology. All the conf outputs and device details are attached.  The problem is "vemcmd show card info" output shows that VEM correctly receives the control, packet VLAN information from the VSM. However I couldnt make vempda service to run. I got the same output all the sayins that : "VEM Agent (vemdpa) is not running".  I checked the control and packet vlan end to end connectivity by creating VMs and etc. there werent any problems....One thing is that, VEM AIPC MAC never showed up in the upstream switch which is connected to ESX host.

I would be glad if someone can help me out with any configuration errors or anything like that...

[root@sahaesx1 ~]# vem status -v

Package vssnet-esx5.5.0-00000-release

Version 4.0.4.1.3.0.0-2.0.21

Build 21

Date Sat May 22 16:25:36 PDT 2010

Number of PassThru NICs are 0

VEM modules are loaded

Switch Name      Num Ports   Used Ports  Configured Ports  MTU     Uplinks  

vSwitch0         128         4           128               1500    vmnic0   

DVS Name         Num Ports   Used Ports  Configured Ports  MTU     Uplinks  

vsm1yeni         256         51          256               1500    vmnic2,vmnic1

Number of PassThru NICs are 0

VEM Agent (vemdpa) is not running

[root@sahaesx1 ~]# vemcmd show version

VEM Version: 4.0.4.1.3.0.0-2.0.21

VSM Version: 4.0(4)SV1(3)

System Version: VMware ESX 4.1.0 Releasebuild-235786

[root@sahaesx1 ~]#

[lwatta]

There are no uplink port-profiles defined in your VSM config. When you add an ESX host to the N1KV what uplink are you choosing? There needs to be an uplink with the control and packet vlans at a minimum defined.

Check out the getting started guide at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus1000/sw/4_0_4_s_v_1_3/getting_started/configuration/guide/n1000v_gsg.html

And there is a N1KV specific site with lots of information at https://www.myciscocommunity.com/community/products/nexus1000v

louis

[dumlutimuralp]

Hi Iwatta,

We upgraded the ESX version to the required version level and VMPDA service starts running.

This is a Nexus1010 setup though. I do not think that I still need to setup port profiles for system vlans. System vlans are configured on Nexus 1010 and VSM seperately.

port-profile type ethernet Unused_Or_Quarantine_Uplink

  description Port-group created for Nexus1000V internal usage. Do not use.

  vmware port-group

  shutdown

  state enabled

port-profile type vethernet Unused_Or_Quarantine_Veth

  description Port-group created for Nexus1000V internal usage. Do not use.

  vmware port-group

  shutdown

  state enabled

My exact question is, if I do have vmnic 0 bind to vswif0 on ESX, and when I add the host to VSM , I associate the vmnic1 and vmnic 2 to vDS (I will use vmnic0 with the regular vswif. At this exact point, on which vmnics should the control and packet vlans be configured already ? on vmnic 1 and 2 only , or vmnic 0 only or all of them ?

[lwatta · Accepted solution]

You still need an uplink port-profile on a VSM running on the 1010. You cannot attach a VEM to a 1010 directly. It needs to attach to a VSM running on the 1010. Once you have a VSM installed on the 1010 its the exact same installation as if you were installing a VSM on ESX. You need uplink and veth port-profiles and the first uplink must carry the control and packet vlans.

The process I use to get N1KV installed on an ESX host is to choose a free nic and add the nic to the uplink that carries the control and packet vlans. The NIC you add to the N1KV is the NIC that is used to carry control traffic. We will not use a nic attached to a vSwitch to push control traffic. The NIC must be on the N1KV.

So if you add vmnic1 to the vDS, vmnic1 is pushing the control traffic. Once the VSM sees the ESX host you can add the other nics and start migrating traffic over the N1KV.

louis

[dumlutimuralp]

Hi Iwatta,

Thanks for responding.

Control VLAN is : 444

Packet VLAN is : 445

I added the following config on VSM :

"port-profile type ethernet system-uplink

  switchport mode trunk

  switchport trunk allowed vlan all

  no shutdown

  system vlan 444-445

  state enabled"

Port 1 -2 carries the management and control traffic, Ports 3-6 carries the data traffic on NExus 1010.

Would this be a correct setup ?

[dumlutimuralp]

Ok. Now VEM and VSM speaks to each other. However I can not see VEM on "show module vem mapping" ? Is there any specific reason to that ?

[root@iacm-1 tmp]# vem-health check 00:02:3d:70:01:03

VSM Control MAC address: 00:02:3d:70:01:03

Control VLAN: 444

DPA MAC: 00:02:3d:40:02:00

The VEM-VSM connectivity seems to be fine.

vsm1yeni# show module uptime

------ Module 1 -----

Module Start Time:   Thu Oct 14 16:49:45 2010

Up Time:             3 day(s), 23 hour(s), 45 minute(s), 6 second(s)

vsm1yeni# show module vem mapping

Mod     Status          UUID                                    License Status

---     -----------     ------------------------------------    --------------

vsm1yeni# show module vem counters

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mod InNR OutMI  InMI OutHBeats  InHBeats InAipcMsgs  OutTO OutTOC InsCnt RemCnt

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

vsm1yeni#

[dumlutimuralp]

Hi,

The Nexus 1010 was using 4.0.4.SV1.3. As soon as we upgraded it to 4.0.4.SV1.3a all problems solved.

Thanks.

Dumlu