ESX server with 10 Physical NIC card and cisco 6500

[Ibrahim Jamil]

Hi Guys

what is the best configuration betwen vmware ESX server with 10 Physical NIC card and cisco 6500 , This ESX Server host 12 vm with VLAN 100,150.200

THANKS

Ibrahim

[scottogden_2]

For previous installations I used a L2 trunk on a static port-channel between the ESX server and the upstream distribution switch (usually a stack)

Without knowing too much about your design:

you could change your load balancing on your vswitch to IP-hash-based load balancing and make sure you configure your 6500 the same way -

port-channel load-balance src-dst-ip

As long as VLAN tagging is enabled on your vswitch you will have one logical trunk.

I think the limits on active ports on your 6500 will be 8 so ensure you use 8 physical NICs on your ESX server. The other 2 NICS could be used for management and vMotion.

[Ibrahim Jamil]

Hi Scott

Pls post me sample config for that 8 interfaces!

thanks

[scottogden_2]

Example config  (off the top of my head so check your own syntax)

Assuming your 6500 isn't running CatOS:

conf t

int range G1/1 - 4

switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan (your VM related VLANs)

switchport trunk native vlan (use another VLAN here not configured on your vswitch - doesn't support native vlans)

channel-group 1 mode on

!

int range G2/1 - 4

switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan (your VM related VLANs)

switchport trunk native vlan (use another VLAN here not configured on your vswitch - doesn't support native vlans)

channel-group 1 mode on

port-channel load-balance src-dst-ip (or TCP/UDP ports)

The above will configure 8 ports over 2 I/O modules into one L2 port-channel, note vswitch doesn't support LACP so the channel-group is configured statically with the on command.

[Ibrahim Jamil]

Hi Scott

what if i didn't configure the below command, does the port-channel wont go up???

switchport trunk native vlan 999

thanks

Ibrahim

[scottogden_2]

If you didn't configure the native vlan it would default to VLAN 1, which isn't a recommended practice

It's best to create a native VLAN on your L2 domain for this purpose.

The main thing to look out for is not using the native VLAN on your vswitch, as vswitch doesn't support non-tagged frames.

Also ensure all your interfaces are configured identically which are members of the same port-channel.

[Ibrahim Jamil]

thanks scott