Question

Data center switching problem

Asked by: Sam_Rendell

Hi peoples,

I have a problem with some switching in my data centre.

I have two firewalls which are supposed to run in HA, they are joined by two switches. Switch one takes LAN and splits it to the two FWs switch two takes WAN form the FWs and joins them. It works fine in my office, if I connect a lappy to the LAN switch it can see both firewalls and out the other side of the WAN switch.

However when I put the switches and FWs into the data centre they can not be seen. With just one FW in place (as I have left it) everything works fine so I assume it is something to do with the switches and VLANs in the DC but I don't know much about VLANs!

The switches I am using do support VLANs however as suggested to me previously they are both using ID 0 (no VLAN) I believe they are only layer 3 switches.

Thanks for reading,
Sam.

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Asked On
2009-08-27 at 04:44:12ID24686188
Tags

VLAN

,

switches

Topics

Network Switches & Hubs

,

Networking Hardware Firewalls

Participating Experts
3
Points
0
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: pseudocyberPosted on 2009-08-27 at 05:16:27ID: 25197049

I would look at the MAC table and gurantee the switches are seeing the MAC address of the firewalls.  Also look for interface errors.  You say they're layer 3 switches - and the firewalls are both in the default vlan?  What about the ARP table, although layer 3 shouldn't be involved between two devices on the same segment, I'd take a look to see if they IP and MAC are corresponding in the ARP table just for grins.

Any errors on the ports?  Anything in syslog?  Can you print the config of the ports and post it here?  Can you get on the firewalls and look at the local arp table? Arp -a?

 

by: Sam_RendellPosted on 2009-08-27 at 06:15:13ID: 25197678

I don't think it is a problem between my switches and firewalls as they have always worked fine together in my office, the problem has only occurred in the DC. Unfortunately the DC is half a day away and the switches are now disconnected so that the single firewall could do it's job. The firewalls were plugged into the default VLANs yes.

I can get to the firewall.

Could you suggest any possible problems in more layman's terms? I'm not really up with networking.

Cheers,
S.

 

by: mikecrPosted on 2009-08-27 at 09:52:50ID: 25200321

You would have to show me the configurations of the switches that they are plugged into on the inside and outside before a decent determination could be made to the problem. Need to know what ports that the firewalls are plugged into.

It seems that something is not hooked up or configured correctly.

 

by: bsohn417Posted on 2009-08-27 at 10:35:51ID: 25200751

Agree with Mikecr, need more info on configuration. while at your location connected locally they work fine, looks like bad patch in the data center.

 

by: Sam_RendellPosted on 2009-08-28 at 00:23:55ID: 25205555

Yes but one FW works fine so I doubt it is patching. I guess it will need to wait until I get back down there and can get the switch config.

S.

 

by: Sam_RendellPosted on 2009-09-16 at 04:11:53ID: 25344158

I've still not got to the DC to try this out.

S.

 

by: Sam_RendellPosted on 2009-10-01 at 00:26:11ID: 25466560

I solved the problem by replacing the switches with normal switches with no VLAN.

S.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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