Hi Community,

I'm seeking guidance on a few doubts about the N4032 configuration issues. Although I have taken networking classes with Cisco switches still new to the field, never configured N4032 before. Ok, this is the situation: we're upgrading our network with 2 N4032 switches connected to a Vxrail appliance and I have been assigned the switches configuration, which is:

• Create Vlan for Management (this have to be routable), VSAN, Vmotion and production environment and assign ports, ip addresses to them. All Vlan's are tagged. 
• Ports connected to the appliance have to run in trunk mode and allow tagged traffic for their respective vlan. Other than Management traffic, all traffic is isolated.
• ipv4 / ipv6 multicast has to be enable thru MLD and IGMP snooping and querier.
• Uplink port to backbone has to allow vlans traffic.

Now, these are the issues and doubts:

• We're planning to use one switch as master and the other as backup and I read that we can use the QSPF modules for stacking and use the auto sync command so the backup switch get the master configuration. Is this correct? Please elaborate on how to do this.
• When #sho interfaces status, I see default vlan 1 in parenthesis in the same ports assigned to other vlans. Why?
• When #sho run I can see MLD and IGMP snooping querier enabled for the required vlan. Do I need to do enable something else?
• When I plug the uplink port to the backbone switch, the port gets disabled because of a looping caused by STP sent by the switch I'm working on. What am I missing here?
• When I test the vlan connection pinging 2 laptops with firewall off and within the vlan ip addreses range, I get destination host unreachable. 

This is result of my #sho run:

!Current Configuration:
!System Description "Dell Networking N4032, 6.2.6.6, Linux 3.7.10-8c2e3085"
!System Software Version 6.2.6.6
!Cut-through mode is configured as disabled
!
configure
vlan 2-5
exit
vlan 2
name "MANAGEMENT"
exit
vlan 3
name "VSAN"
exit
vlan 4
name "VMOTION"
exit
vlan 5
name "VM_PROD_NETWORK"
exit

slot 1/0 2 ! Dell Networking N4032
stack
member 1 1 ! N4032
exit
interface out-of-band
ip address 10.35.140.51 255.255.255.0 10.35.140.1
exit
interface vlan 1
exit
interface vlan 2
ip address 192.168.2.1 255.255.255.0
exit
interface vlan 3
ip address 192.168.3.1 255.255.255.0
exit
interface vlan 4
ip address 192.168.4.1 255.255.255.0
exit

ipv6 mld snooping querier vlan 2
ip igmp snooping querier vlan 3
!
interface Te1/0/1
description "Trunkport_to_ServerApp"
switchport mode trunk
switchport access vlan 2
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2
exit
!
interface Te1/0/2
description "Trunkport_to_ServerApp"
switchport mode trunk
switchport access vlan 2
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2
exit
!
interface Te1/0/3
description "Trunkport_to_ServerApp"
switchport mode trunk
switchport access vlan 3
switchport trunk allowed vlan 3
exit
!
interface Te1/0/4
description "Trunkport_to_ServerApp"
switchport mode trunk
switchport access vlan 3
switchport trunk allowed vlan 3
exit
!
interface Te1/0/5
description "Trunkport_to_ServerApp"
switchport mode trunk
switchport access vlan 4
switchport trunk allowed vlan 4
exit
!
interface Te1/0/6
description "Trunkport_to_ServerApp"
switchport mode trunk
switchport access vlan 4
switchport trunk allowed vlan 4
exit
!
interface Te1/0/7
description "Trunkport_to_ServerApp"
switchport mode trunk
switchport access vlan 5
switchport trunk allowed vlan 5
exit
!
interface Te1/0/8
description "Trunkport_to_ServerApp"
switchport mode trunk
switchport access vlan 5
switchport trunk allowed vlan 5
exit


!
interface Te1/0/23
description "Connection_Backbone"
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2-4
exit
!

This is my #sho interfaces status:

Port Description Duplex Speed Neg Link Flow M VLAN
State Ctrl
--------- --------------- ------ ------- ---- ------ ----- -- -------------------
Te1/0/1 Trunkport_to_Se N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),2
Te1/0/2 Trunkport_to_Se N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),2
Te1/0/3 Trunkport_to_Se N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),3
Te1/0/4 Trunkport_to_Se Full 1000 Auto Up On T (1),3
Te1/0/5 Trunkport_to_Se N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),4
Te1/0/6 Trunkport_to_Se N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),4
Te1/0/7 Trunkport_to_Se N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),5
Te1/0/8 Trunkport_to_Se N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),5
Te1/0/9 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1

Thank you in advance for your prompt help as it will highly appreciated.

Hi,

When you have the switches stacked they will each have the configuration. Page 236 explains the stacking process http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/common/networking_nxxug_en-us.pdf

The native (untagged) VLAN shows in parenthesis.

Page 468 shows how to enable IGMP http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/common/networking_nxxcli_en-us.pdf

Are you creating a loop when you connect to the backbone switch? What else is connected to that switch?

When you try to ping, do they have link lights and show connected? Are they on the same vlan?

Hi Josh, 

Thanks for replying.

• No, I'm not creating a loop when connecting to the backbone switch and nothing else is connected besides my laptop through the console port.
• Yes, the ports which the laptops are connected to have link lights amber and green, and they are on the same vlan, but I can only ping the default gateway. When I ping between laptops I get "Host unreachable" message. Now, I tried removing the mode trunk and I am able to ping between laptops, but the requirements is the ports have to run in trunk mode. Is this issue because the connection is to a laptop/PC which is not smart enough to understand the tagging, but the Vxrail will do or am I missing something here?
• I did enable IGMP/MLD as you can see in #sho run, just wanted to verify if it was done properly. Also, now I know native vlan shows in parenthesis by default in the ports assigned to others vlans, but does not interfere in that vlan traffic, right?

Trunk mode only connects tagged traffic the laptops are probably looking for untagged traffic. The native VLAN is where unatagged traffic is passed. 

**Update:

I was able to: stop the looping and disabling of the port by matching the STP configuration with the main office; enable MLD, IGMP snooping and stack the switches using the QSPF+ modules.  Now from original post there are still couple issues pending:

• Regarding the QSPF+ modules, all configurations were done in Switch1 and according to the stacking document if the Master fails, then the Standby switch takes over and the configuration is copied to it. But, when I tested it I noticed that whenever I poweroff/ initiate failover the Master switch the Standby switch takes over but is missing a few configuration like ports assigned to the VLAN's. I read the manuals and couldn't find a reason for it. Is this how stacking supposed to work, although the manuals says otherwise or am I missing something here? 
• Also I need to make Management VLAN routable, so we can have access from any PC in the network. I thought that by configuring the ip default gateway with ip address of Management VLAN would be all set, but I got an error saying couldn't be set. Can I get a clearer idea of how to do this on N4032's?

Thank you for your help!

Is it ports on the master or the second switch that are not having the VLANS copied? The management VLAN is not routable by design for security reasons. Usually you can access management from the IP address that is assigned to a VLAN. 

Hi Josh, the ports on the second switch are not getting the configuration for VLAN port assigned from the master. I'm wondering what else it will not be copied. When you say Management VLAN not routable, are talking about default VLAN 1? Because I created a different VLAN for Management. Take a look at the configuration:

#show run

!Current Configuration:
!System Description "Dell Networking N4032, 6.2.6.6, Linux 3.7.10-8c2e3085"
!System Software Version 6.2.6.6
!Cut-through mode is configured as disabled
!
configure
vlan 2-5
exit
vlan 2
name "MANAGEMENT"
exit
vlan 3
name "VSAN"
exit
vlan 4
name "VMOTION"
exit
vlan 5
name "VM_PROD_NETWORK"
exit
hostname "DPW-TOR"
slot 1/0 2 ! Dell Networking N4032
slot 1/1 6 ! Dell QSFP Card
slot 2/0 2 ! Dell Networking N4032
slot 2/1 6 ! Dell QSFP Card
stack
member 1 1 ! N4032
member 2 1 ! N4032
exit
interface out-of-band
ip address 10.35.140.51 255.255.255.0 10.35.140.1
exit
ip routing
interface vlan 1
exit
interface vlan 2
ip address 192.168.2.1 255.255.255.0
exit
interface vlan 3
ip address 192.168.3.1 255.255.255.0
exit
interface vlan 4
ip address 192.168.4.1 255.255.255.0
exit
ip default-gateway 192.168.1.1
username "admin" password 3b46131594c3f1f3c3849308995ace76 privilege 15 encrypted
spanning-tree mode mst
spanning-tree priority 53248
spanning-tree mst 1 priority 53248
spanning-tree mst configuration
revision 1
instance 1 add vlan 2-5
exit
ipv6 mld snooping querier vlan 2
ip igmp snooping querier vlan 3
!
interface Te1/0/1
description "Trunkport_to_VxRail_Server"
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2-5
exit
!
interface Te1/0/2
description "Trunkport_to_VxRail_Server"
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2-5
exit
!
interface Te1/0/3
description "Trunkport_to_VxRail_Server"
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2-5
exit
!
interface Te1/0/4
description "Trunkport_to_VxRail_Server"
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2-5
exit
!
interface Te1/0/5
description "Trunkport_to_VxRail_Server"
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2-5
exit
!
interface Te1/0/6
description "Trunkport_to_VxRail_Server"
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 2-5
exit
!
interface Te1/0/7
switchport access vlan 5
exit
!
interface Te1/0/8
switchport access vlan 5
exit
!
interface Te1/0/23
description "Uplink_port_to_Backbone_Network"
switchport access vlan 5
exit
!
interface Te1/0/24
green-mode eee
exit
snmp-server engineid local 800002a2031418770d1978
exit

DPW-TOR#show interfaces status

Port Description Duplex Speed Neg Link Flow M VLAN
State Ctrl
--------- --------------- ------ ------- ---- ------ ----- -- -------------------
Te1/0/1 Trunkport_to_Vx N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),2-5
Te1/0/2 Trunkport_to_Vx N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),2-5
Te1/0/3 Trunkport_to_Vx N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),2-5
Te1/0/4 Trunkport_to_Vx N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),2-5
Te1/0/5 Trunkport_to_Vx N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),2-5
Te1/0/6 Trunkport_to_Vx N/A Unknown Auto Down Off T (1),2-5
Te1/0/7 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 5
Te1/0/8 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 5
Te1/0/9 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/10 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/11 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/12 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/13 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/14 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/15 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/16 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/17 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/18 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/19 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/20 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/21 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/22 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te1/0/23 Uplink_port_to_ Full 1000 Auto Up On A 5
Te1/0/24 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Fo1/1/1 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Fo1/1/2 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te1/1/1 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te1/1/2 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te1/1/3 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te1/1/4 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te1/1/5 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te1/1/6 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te1/1/7 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te1/1/8 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te2/0/1 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/2 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/3 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/4 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/5 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/6 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/7 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/8 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/9 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/10 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/11 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/12 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/13 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/14 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/15 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/16 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/17 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/18 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/19 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/20 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/21 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/22 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/23 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Te2/0/24 N/A Unknown Auto Down Off A 1
Fo2/1/1 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Fo2/1/2 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te2/1/1 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te2/1/2 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te2/1/3 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te2/1/4 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te2/1/5 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te2/1/6 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te2/1/7 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A
Te2/1/8 N/A N/A N/A Detach N/A

#show vlan

VLAN Name Ports Type
----- --------------- ------------- --------------
1 default Po1-128, Default
Te1/0/9-22,
Te1/0/24,
Te2/0/1-24
2 MANAGEMENT Te1/0/1-6 Static
3 VSAN Te1/0/1-6 Static
4 VMOTION Te1/0/1-6 Static
5 VM_PROD_NETWORK Te1/0/1-8, Static
Te1/0/23

So you are not able to access 192.168.2.1? Does it not show switchport trunk allowed vlan 2-5 when you failover on the ports?

The OOB port cannot be on the same subnet as an inband port, that is the reason it is out of band, it is too allow access in the event that inband can’t be used, such as in a denial of service attack. I would try setting on the VLANs on the second switch. 

I can access it, but my PC is in the same subnet as the one assigned to the OOB port and I want to use the same. When I try to set the ip default gateway and enabling routing an error says ip could not be set or there is a conflict. But also show ip interface vlan 2 show routing is enabled, so am I missing something here? Do I need to set telnet or ssh for this?

When I initiate failover on the master, the second switch shows everything is assigned as in the master, but when I do the show status interface on the standby all ports are assigned to the VLAN 1 as you can see on previous post. Do I have to configure the ports on switch 2?