vlan setup on HP 2910 and 2810

so you want to use ports 13 to 20 on each switch?

what does you current ESX host networking look like, screenshot would be helpful.

you can configure via web gui or telnet, I find it easier to configure switches via command line interface, via telnet.

yes. those ports happen to be open on each switch.

networking screenshot attached (only one host. the other is the same except .11 instead of .12)

I am somewhat comfortable with the cmd line (especially if I have the commands!) it's mainly the trk and tagged / untagged stuff that is confusing me a little.

thanks
vm-net1.pdf

okay, you need to trunk the ports, using static trunking on HP switches, as ESX does not support LACP, and once you have the ports trunked, tag the trunks with the VLANS required.

and then make sure Tags are specified on the network portgroups.

ill get the commands for you

HUH?!? ;-0

thanks a lot for your help with this!

easiest way to manage VLANs on these switches is telent into them, type "menu"

Go into port configuration, setup your trunks, then go into VLANs and associate the trunks with the VLANs you want them to have access to.  You can setup a LACP trunk between the two switches if you want them to be online at the same time.  just keep in mind these switches don't support cross switch trunks so the trunks would have to reside on a per switch basis.

@hanccocka:  Hey..just passed my Netapp NCIE..fun stuff with FC switches I have in my lab..

So looking at your networking, you've got 5 NICs

vSwitch0 - vmnic1

vSwitch1 - vmnic3, vmnic2

vSwitch2 - vmnic4

vSwitch0 - vmnic0

is it vSwitch1 and vSwitch2, and their NICs we are wanting to VLAN?

yes. those are the NICs connected to the SAN. I also have a vmnic6, which is not assigned to any vSwitch but is live and has an IP range in the 100 subnet (192.168.100.19 - 192.168.100.19). I guess I should assign that to vSwitch2 and bind the adapters like vSwitch1.

excuse my ignorance but I thought I would just have to assign the ports I wanted on the switch to a new vlan and then in case one switch went down, I could literally just move the cables from the downed switch to the live one (in the vlan ports of course). I think I am missing something regarding how the vlan gets the IP range I would like it to use. I also didn't realize I would have to do anything to the vnics. but I guess I should have figured they'd need to be tagged (untagged?) in order to be routed properly to the vlan. sorry, thinking out loud and trying to piece this together.

found this link helpful regarding commands but I'm still not sure which order to apply the commands.

http://www.sysadmintutorials.com/tutorials/hp/hp-procurve-advanced-cli-commands-reference/

anyway, thanks again.

on the SAN side, the SAN nics will also need to be in the same VLAN, and ports changed?

I will have to search for directions on how to configure the nics on the SAN (AX4-5i). you are saying I will have to reconfigure those as well, correct?

So if I reconfigure the nics on the esx hosts and the san, will that affect the current set up (lose existing connections)?

so, I hope I understand this, but I will have to assign a vlan to the nics on the server, the ports on the switches, and the nics on the san. so it will affect connectivity until all are reconfigured. once they are all reconfigured, each switch will have a vlan for each subnet and the nics on the servers and san will also be configured with their respective vlan. at that point, if one switch goes down, I can move the cables from one switch to the other and it will work because they are configured for the same vlan (server nic, switch ports, san nics).

again excuse my ignorance - didn't think this was going to turn into a vlan lesson.

thanks

If this is a PRODUCTION system, and you are going to start re-configuring networking, it's possible you will lose contact with SAN, Network, VMs, just to warn you.

and yes, you will need to configure the physical ports on the switch that also connect to the SAN.

vmnic4 is just an example on my vswitch.

thanks for this great info. still confused though. now, you've done so much work here, not sure if you want to continue, but I do have more questions / comments. feel free to not answer or request I ask a new question so you can receive the appropriate amount of points.

so I see how to create the vlans and trunks on the switch - very straightforward with your directions.

I see ports 13 and 14 are used for the trunk and the vlans are assigned to the trunk. what exactly do I physically plug into ports 13 and 14?

VLAN ID is entered on each vSwitch under the Properties, correct? or does that have to be done using the CLI? Either way, I would enter vlan50 on vSwitch1 and vlan100 on vSwitch2, correct?

why would I not need two vSwitches? vmnic 2 and 3 are on the 50 subnet. won't I need vmnic4 for access to the 100 subnet? how could I delete vSwitch 2, where vmnic4 is located, and still have a connection to the san nics for the 100 subnet?

also, once this is set up correctly, what do I do with the existing connections? I have 4 cables from each server running to each switch (2 on the 50 subnet and 2 on the 100 subnet).

again, sorry for all of the questions. didn't realize I knew so little about this.

THANKS!

I'll ask one question why do you want to use VLANs?

you plug in vmnic2 and vmnic3.

you edit the VLAN Tag, on the portgroup, and add the correct Tag number, e.g. 50 and 100.

your traffic VLAN 50 and VLAN 100 is not being carried along the same TRUNK, and tnaverseing both vmnics, and being distribruted by the tags.

so vSwitch2 is not required, once you have created another VLAN Portgroup on it.

so what other nics go to 50 and 100 network?

so far, we've covered vmnic2 and vmnic3, (vmnic4 is spare or could be added to the trunk).

Usually VLANs are used to reduce physical networking, where we have a shortage of phnysical network cards.

you have 5 physical network cards.

I was thinking of using vlans in case I had a switch go out. I have 2 switches. One on the 50 subnet and one on the 100 subnet. if one goes out, I thought I could just pull the cables from it and plug into the other switches vlan ports that were configured with the subnet of the switch that went down.

"your traffic VLAN 50 and VLAN 100 is not being carried along the same TRUNK, and tnaverseing both vmnics, and being distribruted by the tags." did you mean the traffic IS being carried along the same trunk and distributed via tags? because if not, I give up!

only vmnic 2, 3, and 4 go to 50 and 100 (2 and 3 for 50 and 4 for 100)

if there is a simpler way to achieve my goal, short of buying another switch, please let me know.

many thanks for your putting up with my questions.

sorry is being carried along the same TRUNK!!!!!!

well depending upon what you want to do, you could trunk all ports

vmnic2,3,4 VLAN 50 and VLAN 100 that gives you load balancing, teaming, across all three network ports, carrying both VLANs 50 and 100.

you could combine vmnic0 and vmnic0 into another trunk for teaming and resilience

you could combine vmnic0 and vmnic1 into another trunk for teaming and resilience

but on the SAN side, you would need to ensure that the correct ports are Tagged and offered to the SAN so the ESX traffic reaches the correct ports.

I do not know how your SAN or what you SAN is to configure there.

But do you uinderstand, the SAN ports MUST be in the SAME VLANs, otherwise traffic will never reach the SAN.

yes, that is one thing I understand! now I just need to find out how to do so. one SAN is an EMC AX4-5i (production) and the other is an HP p2000 g3 (not yet in production).

so if 13 and 14 are my trunks and I plug vmnic2 and 3 into those, where would vmnics 4 and 5 be plugged in? I am confused here as vmnics 2 and 3 are teamed and would be configured with VLAN 50, leaving no connection for subnet / VLAN 100 which is on vmnic 4 (soon teamed with vmnic5).

also, if for some reason 13 and/or 14 go out, no other ports are configured for these VLANs. should I configure trunks on more than these two ports for failover / resilience?

you asked, "I'll ask one question why do you want to use VLANs?".

I answered "I was thinking of using vlans in case I had a switch go out. I have 2 switches. One on the 50 subnet and one on the 100 subnet. if one goes out, I thought I could just pull the cables from it and plug into the other switches vlan ports that were configured with the subnet of the switch that went down."

you also stated, VLANs are usually used when there is a shortage of physical network cards. I actually have 8 ports across 3 cards (two 2-port and one 4-port) in each server, along with two 24-port switches each dedicated to its own SAN subnet (50 and 100).

is my thinking muddled / flawed? is there something else I should do to achieve my goal of SAN network failover / resilience? maybe I should've asked "is it possible / advisable to configure two different subnets on one switch?" strictly for failover and only used if one switch goes out and only until I get a replacement (couple days max, if over a weekend).

thanks again for your guidance and patience!

team and trunk either

vmnic 2,3,4,5 in one four port trunk with vlan 50 and vlan 100

or vmnic 2,3 trunk vlan 50

and vmnic 4,5 trunk vlan 100

oh, I kind of understand.

but you could do the same with connect

vmnic2,3 to one switch
vmnic4,5 to one switch

connect SANs network interface 1 to one switch, 1 to another switch!

one switch fails you still have a path to storage? with no vlans, no unplug cables?

HOLY $H!+, is this all moot!

I currently have vmnic2,3 on the 50 subnet switch and vmnic4,5 on the 100 subnet switch. I also have one port from each storage processor on the 50 switch and one port from each storage processor on the 100 subnet switch. Since my server is connected to the SAN over the 50 and 100 subnets, on dedicated switches, if the 100 subnet switch goes out, for example, the VMs / server will still be connected to the SAN over the 50 subnet switch, allowing the VMs to continue running, correct? If so, and if my set up is already redundant, I really need to take a vacation, and possibly contemplate a career change, cause I am no longer thinking things out before I start to stress about it! and if so, sorry to have wasted your time, but thanks for the great lesson on VLANs!

Ah, Yes!

Try it, out of hours!

INDEED I WILL! afterwhich I may humbly find other means of income outside of IT, but in this economy...

THANKS AGAIN!

Thanks. Although I didn't set up the VLANs, I learned a lot about them and how to configure them. I am certain someone will find the commands useful.

Thanks hanccocka!