bartok00

8 Posts

65932

August 10th, 2012 09:00

Configure 5324 Switch to connect (via trunk) to Virtual Switch (vSwitch) with VLAN Tagging (VST) on ESX/ESXi host

I'm trying to connect a Dell Powerconnect 5324 to a ESXi virtual switch running on an Intel Modular Blade Server. I'm having problems with the trunk between the 5324 and the vswitch. I am able to get to the ESX itself on the management network...but not able to talk to the virtual machines on the other side of the trunk (i.e., on the vswitch).

Does the 5324 have dot1q enabled by default?

Below are the instructions from VMware:

To configure Virtual Switch (vSwitch) VLAN Tagging (VST) on ESX/ESXi host:

Assign a VLAN to a portgroup(s). Supported VLAN range (1-4094).
Set the switch NIC teaming policy to Route based on originating virtual port ID, this is set by default.
- VLAN ID 0 (Zero) Disables VLAN tagging on port group (EST Mode)
- VLAN ID 4095 enables trunking on port group (VGT Mode)
  
  Note: Incoming traffic NIC teaming is called Ether-channel / LACP. For more information, see Sample configuration of EtherChannel / Link aggregation with ESX/ESXi and Cisco/HP switches (1004048).

To configure the physical switch settings:

Define ESX/ESXi VLANs on the physical switch.
Allow proper range to ESX/ESXi host.
Set the physical port connection between ESX/ESXi and physical switch to TRUNK mode. ESX only supports IEEE 802.1Q (dot1q) trunking.

- Physical switch is set to TRUNK mode
- dot1q encapsulation is enabled
- Spanning-tree is set to portfast trunk (for example, Port forwarding, skips other modes)
- Define VLAN interface
- Assign IP Range to VLAN interface
- VLAN Routing – and VLAN Isolation
  
  Caution: Native VLAN ID on ESX/ESXi VST Mode is not supported. Do not assign a VLAN to a port group that is same as the native VLAN ID of the physical switch. Native VLAN packets are not tagged with VLAN ID on the out going traffic toward ESX/ESXi host. Therefore, if ESX/ESXi is set VST mode, it drops the packets that are lacking a VLAN tag.

This sample is a supported Cisco Trunk Port configuration:

interface GigabitEthernet1/2
switchport    (Set to layer 2 switching)
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q   (ESX/ESXi only supports dot1q, not ISL)
switchport trunk allowed vlan 10-100    (Allowed VLAN to ESX/ESXi . Ensure ESX/ESXi VLANs are allowed)
switchport mode trunk    (Set to Trunk Mode)
switchport nonegotiate    (DTP is not supported)
no ip address
no cdp enable    (ESX 3.5 or higher supports CDP)
spanning-tree portfast trunk    (Allows the port to start forwarding packets immediately on linkup)

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DELL-Willy M

802 Posts

1

August 10th, 2012 10:00

I pulled this directly from the 53xx User Guide

support.dell.com/.../5324UG.pdf

Feature Specifications

VLAN

• VLAN support for Tagging and Port Based as per IEEE 802.1Q

• Up to 4094 VLANs Supported

• Reserved VLANs for internal system use

• Dynamic VLANs with GVRP support

• Protocol based VLANs

Here is a sample config

Console#config

Console(config)# interface Ethernet xx

console(config-if)# switchport mode trunk

console(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan add 10-100

console(config-if)# spanning-tree portfast

If this is not working you can try using a general port mode instead of trunk. It is similar to the trunk.

Hope this helps,

Keep us updated if you can.

bartok00

8 Posts

0

August 10th, 2012 11:00

I think I have the above in place already. Here is my configuration:

spanning-tree mode rstp

interface range ethernet g(1-20)

spanning-tree portfast

exit

interface port-channel 3

spanning-tree guard root

exit

interface range ethernet g(1-20)

spanning-tree guard root

exit

interface port-channel 3

description LAG-to-Intel02SW01

exit

interface port-channel 3

switchport mode trunk

exit

vlan database

vlan 10,20,80,90,200

exit