E/TE port VSAN membership

[CSCO10662744_2]

I have a Nexus 5000 uplinked to an MDS 9710.
The uplink is a 4-port SAN port-channel, which is not in the production VSAN (10), but in the default VSAN 1 instead.

Is this expected/normal behavior & configuration for an E/TE port between two SAN switches?
Do I only need to specifically put a port in VSAN 10 for downlink/host F ports?

Thanks.

[dynamoxxx]

i like to keep physical ports used for port-channels in VSAN 1  because you can't delete VSAN 1.  If you were to put ports in VSAN 10 and than someone in 3 years deletes that VSAN becuase it's no longer needed (or so they think), ports in VSAN 10 will go down and so will your port-channel.   So i keep my ports in VSAN 1 and simply trunk appropriate VSANs.

[Walter Dey]

Sorry I disagree ! since tens of years we are preaching the crowd not using vlan 1 nor vsan 1 for production.

The scenario you describe: someone (not a professional !) deleting a vsan and therefore disrupting interfaces. Before you delete an interface, you do a "show vsan membership" ....

Here a few arguments, why using vlan and vsan 1 is not best practise:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/11708866/why-should-i-not-use-vsan-1

VSAN 1, also known as the default VSAN, is typically used for communication, management, or testing purposes.
We recommend that you do not use VSAN 1 as your production environment VSAN.
There are several features that, when configured, disrupt traffic on VSAN 1.
If you use VSAN 1 as your production environment VSAN, you risk disrupting traffic
when these features are configured.

http://networking-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=21075

http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/210774-vlan-1-and-native-vlans-in-a-mostly-cisco-environment

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/10421306/should-you-not-use-vlan-1

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/pd/si/casi/ca6000/prodlit/vlnwp_wp.htm#wp39009

[dynamoxxx]

where did you see that i said to use VSAN 1 for productution ? You place only the ports used for port-channel into VSAN 1 and trunk whatever your production VSANs are.  Disagree ?

[CSCO10662744_2]

Thank you both for responding. I came from ethernet/data networking background, so am new to how SAN works in general. In IP networking, you'd assign a VLAN to a port, or port-channel. It looks like in the SAN world, it's the opposite, where you'd assign a port, or port-channel to a VSAN?? If that's the case, how should I handle the member ports, or the port-channel, as far as which VSAN to assign, when they may carry multiple VSAN's Can you assign a port, or port-channel to multiple VSAN's? The current member ports & port-channel are assigned to the default VSAN 1. We don't use VSAN 1, but VSAN 10 for production. How is SAN working then, if the SAN port-channel needs to be assigned to VSAN 10?

[dynamoxxx]

A port can only belong to one VSAN but that does not stop you from trunking multiple VSANs. IE

interface port-channel 20
channel mode active
switchport trunk mode on
switchport trunk allowed vsan 10,30

int fc1/1
channel-group 20 force
no shut

int fc2/1
channel-group 20 force
no shut

my physical ports 1/1 and 2/1 are placed in VSAN 1. Then i create port-channel 20 that will be trunking VSAN 10 and VSAN 30. After that i add two to ports to the port -channel.  You have to do the same thing on the other switch.

[Walter Dey]

I know this arguments very well; it's a story going on now for over 10 years.

There are a lot of similarities between vlans and vsans. e.g. default vlan 1 (must not be the native one), default vsan 1.

Therefore if you don't assign a port to a particular vlan/vsan =/ 1, it's placed in the default one.

If you do show vsan membership

you see the interfaces (physical and logical) belonging to a vsan.

If you use vsan 1 as per your proposal; your ports listed in vsan 1 are not used ports, as well as production ports (for your port channel, or trunks).

If you don't use vsan 1 as per best practise, all ports showing under vsan 1 are unsued ports.

I consider this a helpful management and operational argument, besides the ones mentioned above.

Anyway, I couldn't care less ! If you want to do it, do it;

Walter.