vlans, vlan ID vs network ID, and clustering..

[tjk]

Hello Folks,

I have some simple (I hope) questions, and hope that I am just missing the easy way to do this.

How do you share vlan configurations across a cluster of ESX hosts, with VI3, so that VM's can use DRS/HA/VMotion across the cluster.

For example, if I have 10 VMs on a host node, and each in their own vlan, they cannot migrate to the other nodes on the cluster because the vlans are not configured on each node.

I can add the vlans manually via VC to each host node, but I surely must be missing an easier way to do this rather then configurig the same vlans on each host node by hand via VC? This is a cluster, am I missing the "share this config across the cluster" switch somewhere? :smileygrin:

Also, in some testing we did, it vmotion appears to honor the network label rather then the vlan ID. I can have the same network label on two host nodes, but have different vlan ID's and it will move the VM to that node, and end up losing network connectivity on the VM. Is this a bug?

Thanks,

Tom

[esiebert7625 · Accepted solution]

Nope you're not missing an easier way to do this. You basically have to setup your networking identically on each host (VLAN's and network labels have to match) for Vmotion/HA/DRS to work. It's been said that the new release of ESX will feature centralized vswitches so you do not have to setup the same vswitches on each host independently.

The network label is what it uses, it does not look at the VLAN ID, so you if you have a different VLAN ID but the same label your VM is not going to have connectivity when it moves to the new host.

Fyi…if you find this post helpful, please award points using the Helpful/Correct buttons.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Thanks, Eric

Visit my website: http://vmware-land.com

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[tjk]

Eric,

As always, thank you for your prompt and precise answer.

Such a huge oversight it seems, one of those "What were they thinking?!" type statements.

Hopefully soon.

Tom

[Nicodemus]

Eric,

Am I understanding this correctly that when a VLAN ID is entered it needs to match up to the physical switch VLAN? Is this a link between your Vswitch and the physical switch? See attached image.

Just trying to get an understanding of how VLAN ID works with Netork labeling.

Thanks, - Nicodemus

[jjohnston1127]

I configure all of my PHYSICAL NIC connections on the switch as TRUNK ports.

On the vSwitch Portgroup, I set the VLAN ID to the actual VLAN that it needs to belong to. Yes, this is an actual physical number on your network. So if you have VLAN 128, 200, and 329 on your network switch, setup the physical NIC as a trunk link and setup the vSwitch portgroup for your server that belongs on the 128 VLAN to have a VLAN ID of 128.

If your switch port is setup on its own VLAN (or on the native vlan of 1) and you dedicate a NIC to a vSwitch, no VLAN ID is necessary. It is only necessary when using trunk links with multiple vlans.

Hope that makes sense.