Create Vlan on Dell N4000 switch

Question

Good afternoon,

Apologies for posting regarding such a simple matter, but as I am not a networking guru, I would like to ask something very simple. How can I create a Vlan on a Dell switch N4000.

The issue I want to solve:

We recently acquired a Dell switch N4000 that has SFP+ ports. On the switch will be connected Unity storage server and a HPC cluster. The purpose is to keep the traffic separated between the two networks. I want the Dell switch to have our main company network and to be usable by Unity or other future devices, supposedly that our main network is 192.168.1.1/24. And I want cluster to use other ports and to be on another vlan not related with our main network, supposedly it will be using 192.168.4.1/24.

I want to have 24 ports for the main network and the other 24 for the cluster. What I did so far is to follow the instructions provided on URL: https://www.dell.com/support/article/uk/en/ukdhs1/sln294670/configuring-vlan-on-dell-switches?lang=en on section 3.

As there will be no dhcp for the cluster, can the switch be serving IPs on these ports or by assigning the relevant IPs manually on the cluster interfaces, they will be able to communicate?

Thanks in advance for any help!

DELL-Josh Cr · Accepted Answer

Yes, if you are not using the features it is best to remove the commands and keep the configuration as simple as possible.

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

Hi,

The best option would be to use DHCP relay and have your normal DHCP server hand out addresses. Page 333 https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_networking/esuprt_net_fxd_prt_swtchs/networking-n4000-series_user%27s-guide11_en-us.pdf

But you could turn on the DHCP server on the switch and have it hand out addresses, but you would have to make sure the ranges don’t overlap with the other DHCP server.

faidon · Answer

Hi Craig,

Thank you very much for your reply! I want to use my DC to the main network to provide the IP addresses in the main network and not the DHCP relay. My question is, since the vlan for the cluster will not be related to the main network, do I need to have there dhcp relay to provide IP addresses or is it better to assign them manually?

In order to create the vlan, I entered the following commands:

#configure

#vlan 10

#name Cluster

#interface tengigabit ethernet 1/0/25

#switchport mode access

#switchport access vlan 10

#exit

And then executed the above commands for the rest of the ports till 48.

Having executed these commands, will the vlans be separate as I do not want the two vlans to communicate and I do not want to have internet access. It will be more of a private network for the cluster only.

Apologies for the number questions.

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

Static ip addresses is probably the best option. The VLANs will be separate unless you enable ip routing.

faidon · Answer

Thank you for replying. So these commands are enough?

Excuse my ignorance, but if assign static IPs and since there is no dhcp server, how will the packages be routed from a device to another? Shall I configure a port on Vlan L3 interface or all the ports have to be configured on L3?

Thanks in advance!

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

Yeah those commands look fine. You don’t need DHCP to do routing, DHCP just hands out IP addresses. If all of the traffic is in the same VLAN no routing needs to be done, it will use broadcasts to find other devices MAC addresses.

faidon · Answer

Good morning Craig,

Apologies for coming back regarding this matter. Hope you are well and had a pleasant weekend! One last question. If I have implemented on a port the commands for Layer 3 vlan config, shall I delete this config and leave only layer 2 config?

Thanks in advance!

faidon · Answer

Thank you very much for all the help!

Networking General

Create Vlan on Dell N4000 switch

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