Nexus 2K port configuration for Cisco WLC 5520 Management Port

[gqadirmirza]

Hi

I have pair of WLC 5520s connected to Nexus 2K. The management port of the WLC is configured in VLAN78. And the switchport of the Nexus switch is configured as access port and also configured for VLAN78 but i am unable to ping the WLC management IP from LAN. 

I am looking for the suggestion that what will be configuration on Nexus 2K ports in this case? 

Thanks

[Flavio Miranda]

Hi,

 Show int status on nexus show what?  connected? 

On the WLC side, on CONTROLLER tab, and ports, everything is ok? enable? Link up ?

On CONTROLLER tab, General, LAG Mode is enable?

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[gqadirmirza]

Yes everything is configured and physically connected please find attached the screen shot. we have Nexus  2248-TP and its ports are configured as:

int eth 25

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan 78

no shut

......

this port is configured to the management interface of the WLC. but i am unable to ping it from the network. i can ping the VLAN78 gateway and other IPs but not the IP of the WLC. 

Please suggest. 

[Flavio Miranda]

LAG mode enable on the WLC is the same as port-channel on the switch. 

 Try to configure the nexus interfaces as trunk  and add vlan 78 or disable LAG mode on the WLC side.

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[gqadirmirza]

Hi Flavio

I didn't get your point because WLC5520 has a management port which is simple an ethernet port. So you are saying the i don't need to enable the LAG on WLC?  the WLCs have 2 10Gig ports which are data ports and they are different than the management. So my question is:

if we disable the LAG will it effect this two 10Gig port connectivity?

[Flavio Miranda]

I'm saying that if you are using LAG(trunk) on the WLC side, you should enable trunk on the switch side.

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[gqadirmirza]

I am confused because i have the problem in accessing the new WLCs via the management port which is not a trunk port. Management port is configured for VLAN78 so i am looking the nexus port configuration in this case. 

[Flavio Miranda]

Management Interface is similar to an Interface Vlan on switch. I'd say it is a layer 3 interface although is not exactly that.

 But, the ports between WLC and Switch are layer 2 entities and must match the config.

 That's what I'm saying.

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[gqadirmirza]

When i am reading a documentation i am confused. So according to the document here is what my understanding is:

Cisco WLC 5520 Rear Panel Ports:

1) 2 USB ports

2) CIMC Port (Marked with 'M')

3) Console Port

4) Service Port

5) Redundant Port 

Ok so my question is according to documentation CIMC has a separate management module on motherboard and we configure with CIMC cable. So what about the IP address that we setup during Express Setup Wizard. Is that IP not relevant to this management port? Why we are configuring this port separately then. And when i am connecting this management port to my nexus 2K, i am not able to ping the management IP of cisco wlc 5520 from the network. I can ping everything even the gateway IP of the vlan which is configured on controller but not the interface IP. 

Here is configuration of my WLC:

on Management Port:

VLAN906

IP: 10.144.3.200

Subnetmask: 255.255.255.192

Gateway: 10.144.3.193

On Nexus 2K:

Int eth0/25

switchport mode trunk

no shut

[Flavio Miranda]

Please, do not confuse Management interface on the WLC. The Management interface is a Dynamic Interface that you can´t not delete and/or create. It is there by default and it is the interface on which the WLC receives all the capwap traffic.

 CIMC is an port for out-of-band management present in any UCS based device.

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[gqadirmirza]

Thank you for your reply. So that means we don't need to connect that management interface on back of WLC 5520 with our core switches. right? 

Actually i am having a issue accessing the WLC  GUI via management IP. can you please help what could be the issue. i thought that management interface on back of 5520s need to be physically connected to core. So i connected this to FEX (Nexus 2248). Here is the configuration on switch where i have connected the mgmt port of WLC5520. 

Note:

There are 5 FEX that are all dual homed to Core A & B, because of this both Core A&B have to have identical configuration for each FEX port.

CoreA-56128# show run int e101/1/25

!Command: show running-config interface Ethernet101/1/25

!Time: Thu Jan 25 11:21:10 2018

version 7.0(7)N1(1)

interface Ethernet101/1/25

  description Wireless Control

  switchport mode trunk

  no shutdown

CoreA-56128# show run int e101/1/26

!Command: show running-config interface Ethernet101/1/26

!Time: Thu Jan 25 11:21:16 2018

version 7.0(7)N1(1)

interface Ethernet101/1/26

  description Wireless Control

  switchport mode trunk

  no shutdown

CoreA-56128#

Eth101/1/25   Wireless Control   connected trunk     full    a-1000  --

Eth101/1/26   Wireless Control   connected trunk     full    a-1000  --

DMC-CoreB-56128# show run int e101/1/25

!Command: show running-config interface Ethernet101/1/25

!Time: Thu Jan 25 11:22:09 2018

version 7.0(7)N1(1)

interface Ethernet101/1/25

  description Wireless Control

  switchport mode trunk

  no shutdown

CoreB-56128# show run int e101/1/26

!Command: show running-config interface Ethernet101/1/26

!Time: Thu Jan 25 11:22:15 2018

version 7.0(7)N1(1)

interface Ethernet101/1/26

  description Wireless Control

  switchport mode trunk

  no shutdown

CoreB-56128#

Eth101/1/25   Wireless Control   connected trunk     full    a-1000  --

Eth101/1/26   Wireless Control   connected trunk     full    a-1000  --

[Flavio Miranda]

That's correct. Only the Giga or Ten giga interface needs to be connected to the switch. Then, configured as trunk or access depending on your topology.

 The Management Interface is a dynamic interface and you just need to configure an IP address.

   Once I got the WLC properly connected to the switch and Management Interface with IP address

you should be able to access the web interface.

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[gqadirmirza · Accepted solution]

I am surprised that no one mentioned that this Management port is not the port which we use for GUI. I didn't find it till i went into details. So the management port on WLC5520 is not the port which we use to access GUI. This is for out of band management. The management interface that we configure in the 5520 controller configuration is the logical interface. Any way when LAG is enabled on 5520 so all interfaces are communicating under the LAG so i don't need to configure the physical management interface on the controller because that is only used for troubleshooting etc.