ESXI Hosts are unable to ping gateways on Nexus Switch

[ConnorWiles5247]

Hello all,

We have ESXi hosts connected to a Cisco Nexus 3172 and are having issues pinging the gateway required from the hosts themselves. From the switch, I can ping the gateway the host need to get to and can ping all the way up to the core that houses our SVIs. All the related Vlans are up and in an active state. All the physical links are showing connected and are up. We experienced this problem before where our 1GB links on another switch worked but the 10GB links on the Nexus did not, we solved it by making the switchports statically set on speed and duplex. Am i missing something on the configuration side or is it possibly with the Vmware distributed virtual switch not being on? 

[Seb Rupik]

Hi there,

If the ESXi host is attached to the switch have you allocated the host interfaces to the vSwitch/ distributed switch? 

Does the vSwitch have port-groups and VLAN IDs assigned? Are those same VLAN IDs being tagged from the Nexus switch to the ESXi host? From the Nexus switch does sh mac address show any VMware MAC addresses (0050:xxxx:xxxx) of live VMs sourced from the switchports connected to the ESXi host?

cheers,

Seb.

[ConnorWiles5247]

Morning, 

Yes the vDistributed Switch has port groups and VLAN IDs assigned. The links connected to the Nexus switch are trunked as requested by the VMware administrator. I believe they are being tagged from Nexus to ESXi host. I performed a sh mac address and it does not show any live VMware mac addresses. 

[Seb Rupik]

How is the nexus switch connected to the host, two links? Active/ passive? LACP, what is the status of the port-channel?

Can you share the config of the nexus switchports involved?

[ConnorWiles5247]

We have four hosts connected by two 10GB links each to the Nexus switch. There is also a redundant 1GB connection linked to another switch. The 10GBs are active when working. Is a port-channel required for the distributed switch to work with the NExus ? Sorry i am new to this ! I can try to get the config, the switch is on an air gapped system and i am unable to use removable media.

[Deepak Kumar]

Hi,

Let's start from the starting:

As you mentioned that there is no mac address showing on the switch on particular switch port then I have some basic question as:

1. Is ESXi host connected to only this switch and on this port only? If you are not sure then trace the cable or check with mac-address-table?

2. Are ESXi ports configured as Switch-depended type EtherChannel or normal LLCP?

3. If there is switch depended then remove other cables and try.

4. If everything is ok but is it not showing mac address on the interface then VLAN configuration is having an issue as ESXi may have VLAN 10 as native but the switch is having VLAN 11 as Native.

 Is a port-channel required for the distributed switch to work with the NExus 

It depends on the ESXi configuration and can you share your ESXi and switch configuration with us?

[ConnorWiles5247]

Deepak, 

Through the mac address table I can see the hosts and the mac addreses associated with their nics. The ESXI Hosts are connected to the nexus switch via two 10GB links for each host. So each host would have two ports associated with it on the switch. There is a fifth server connected to the switch as well with 2 1GB lines. The ESXi hosts are not set up for Ether-Channel. I have removed all other connections to other switches and am focusing on the Nexus. I can try to get the full configurations but am on an airgapped network and need permission to move things over. We initially had this problem before when we had the trunks in negotiate for speed in duplex and fixed it by manually setting the speed switch side. 

1GB switchport config

switchport mode trunk

spanning-tree port type edge trunk 

speed 1000

duplex full

10GB switchport config 

switchport mode trunk 

spanning-tree port type edge trunk 

speed 10000

duplex full

[Deepak Kumar]

Hi,

Is Interface port showing up means Admin and Protocol both? You can set up speed & duplex in auto and share interface status.

[ConnorWiles5247]

Hi, 

Yes, the interfaces are up/up and show connected and trunked for all links. They show connected and up/up for both auto and manually set speeds/duplexes. The ESXi hosts just cant seem to see their default gateway. 

[ConnorWiles5247 · Accepted solution]

All, 

Thank you for your time and insight. I ended up reloading a new baseline on the switch as this was one of the last remaining legacy switches in my environment and it brought everything back up correctly. I was receving kernel errors on the nexus switch at some point and realized it may be a more obsure problem. Thank you again !

[Deepak Kumar]

Hi,

It's nice to hear that you resolved the issue. If you will get this type of any suspected error on the switch/router/server/device must be share in the post, so anyone can examine the same and reply ASAP with the best answer.