M1000e Force10 MXL - Possible Loop when connected with CMC?

Question

Hello everyone, i am currently setting up my first M1000e with 2 MXL switches (A1 and A2). I have stacked the both MXL via the 2 40GIG Ports (direct QSFP cable). There is also a 4 Port 10 Gig SPF+ FlexModule inserted into the MXL modules. My plan is to connect the 4 SFP+ Ports via DAC to my Cisco Top-of-Rack Switch. For my initial setup i have simply connected a DAC Cable in Port 41 (MXL) to my Cisco TOR Switch. So simply speaking: Port 41 (MXL) should be my uplink port. I have noticed that by default the 4 Ports from the FlexModule (Ports 41-44) are not member of any VLAN (but Ports 1-32 are member of default vlan1). So i did a 'switchport' and 'portmode hybrid' on Port 41, and for a few seconds everthing seems to work well, but then i had connection problems via ssh to the MXL stack, and also a continous ping to the MXL had several interrupts. After a 'no switchport' (via terminal) on Port 41 the network was stable again... but so the blade modules don't have any network connection the the external network. The CMC (redundant) and the DAC (Port 41) are both connected to the same TOR Switch. Are the CMCs working as a switch? Is this the reason for a possible network Loop? How can i connect the blades to the TOR Switch? Or is it mandatory to use different VLANs for CMC and 'the rest of the network' ? I hope someone can enlighten me :-) Greetings, Thomas

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

Hi,

How are the CMCs cabled to the switch? https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/us/en/04/poweredge-m1000e/m1000eownersmanual/daisy-chain-cmc-network-connection?guid=guid-8b375d8c-bd83-49a3-8e41-61523fdca97f&lang=en-us and the CMC should be on a separate VLAN https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/us/en/04/dell-chassis-mgmt-cntrllr-v1.0-pedge-vrtx/cmcvrtxug-v1/setting-up-initial-access-to-cmc?guid=guid-7b7ed95d-78f5-45f0-953e-f90c8b0ec1c3&lang=en-us

Thombo · Answer

Hi Josh,

thank you very much for your answer.

the CMC is connected via the "GB" Connector. There is no cable in the "STK" jack.

Our Management-LAN is vlan1 (the default vlan) and we need a NIC from the blades connected to the default vlan. Or is it not possible to have the blades and the CMC in the same vlan?

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

They should be separate VLANs.

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