Settings for NX4 to communicate with Cisco switch

if you want to use VLAN tagging you have to configure it both on the Celerra and the VMware server and the switch

Cisco switches can sometimes set to negotiate/recognize VLAN tagging automatically - end devices like Celerra or VMware dont

ral67,

That's interesting. I was told by someone at EMC (forget their name since my email is currently down) to not tag the Celerra. With that being said, when I tag all the devices (NX4, Cisco switch, VMware server), they all can't communicate. Do you know of anything that would cause that? I have nonegotiate set on the port-channels and interfaces.

this is the way it works

if you tag a Celerra virtual interface (i.e. configure a VLAN ID) it will add a preamble to the Ethernet packet that contains the VLAN number.

a properly configured switch uses that tag to determine where to send the packet to

if you dont configure a VLAN ID the neither the Celerra nor the switch know which VLAN is meant

that is ok for an "end client" that is only connected to one VLAN - there if the switch interface is properly configured not to do tagging the switch will strip this preamble

so if you need multiple VLAN on the same physical interface (or trunk or FSN) you need to tag

if you just want one VLAN per physical interface you dont have to tag

Is it correct that Celerra's use LACP, as opposed to EtherChannel? I've set

native VLAN traffic and VLAN specific traffic to traverse the trunk, and I've

set it to only use VLAN specific traffic, and only when I include the native

VLAN traffic in the configuration will it work. Of course, again, that's only

if I strip off the VLAN on the Celerra. I'm having a hard time believing that

the switch is improperly configured, but I can't 100% rule that out I guess.

Do you know of any specifics of setting this up for Cisco switches, or some

reference place in which I could look?

the Celerra can do both (but no PAgP) - you just have to specify it when you create the trunk device

I think we prefer LACP since its more flexible and has better diag capabilities

see the Configuring and Managing EMC Celerra Network High Availability  manual

Also the Configuring and Managing Celerra Networking  manual has config examples for VLAN setup on a Cisco

I have tried LACP and EtherChannel both, and neither one seem to work when I

tag the Celerra's VLAN. The documentation to which you referenced, use CatOS

and my switch uses IOS. I know the commands for setting up trunks, vlans,

lacp, and etherchannel in IOS, so I'm rather confident they're correct. Is it

possible there is some other global configuration that can be configured on

Cisco switches that the Celerra doesn't like, and if it is present, it will

need to be removed? I'm at my wits end here. If anything else, is it possible

to get me into touch with someone who has actually done what I am trying to

do?

Check out http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk213/technologies_configuration_example09186a0080094470.shtml

That link has IOS and CATOS configuration steps for LACP.

I use a 3560 at our firm but not any trunking , my question is that when we recieved our install last summer the saleman forgot to quote any switches and also forgot to tell me that I would need eight new drops in my server room. I am looking to replace the 2 cheap switches in my server room with a cisco layer 2 24 port giga switch, will this be suitable for use with the nx4

At this point, I can neither confirm nor deny the usage of the 3560 with the

NX4, as I have been unable to get it to work as I would like it to. I am in

the process of opening an SR so that I can get someone from EMC here again who

has had viable experience working with getting Cisco switches and the NX4 to

work as needed. If you decide to go the 3560 route, and you end up creating

trunks, vlans and port-channels to communicate with the NX4 and it works, then

please revisit this forum and let me know how you did it successfully.

Hopefully I will have already resolved the issue, but it might help other

NetAds or SysAds in the future.