Comments on: VMware ESX, NIC Teaming, and VLAN Trunking with HP ProCurve http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/05/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/ The weblog of an IT pro specializing in virtualization, storage, and servers Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:21:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: adam http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/05/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/comment-page-1/#comment-47524 adam Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:32:01 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/08/26/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/#comment-47524 I'd be curious what the best practice is for flow control both on the switching side and the vmware esx side as well! I’d be curious what the best practice is for flow control both on the switching side and the vmware esx side as well!

]]> By: mark http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/05/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/comment-page-1/#comment-47506 mark Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:39:42 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/08/26/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/#comment-47506 hi i have just setup our esx with four nics and set them to ip route in the networking on config on v centre on the hp switch i have added these for cables to trk1. my question is do i need to enable flow control and do i just set the group to tunk and not use lacp. other than that is there anything else i need to do and will i get the benefit of a better performace with a 4gb trunk. excellent site full of some excellent info thanks mark hi

i have just setup our esx with four nics and set them to ip route in the networking on config on v centre

on the hp switch i have added these for cables to trk1. my question is do i need to enable flow control and do i just set the group to tunk and not use lacp. other than that is there anything else i need to do and will i get the benefit of a better performace with a 4gb trunk.

excellent site full of some excellent info thanks

mark

]]> By: slowe http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/05/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/comment-page-1/#comment-47458 slowe Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:37:33 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/08/26/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/#comment-47458 Peter, See this: http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/07/16/understanding-nic-utilization-in-vmware-esx/ That post should give you the information you're seeking. Thanks! Peter,

See this:

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/07/16/understanding-nic-utilization-in-vmware-esx/

That post should give you the information you’re seeking. Thanks!

]]> By: Peter F http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/05/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/comment-page-1/#comment-47456 Peter F Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:57:52 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/08/26/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/#comment-47456 Nice article! I have configured one of our ESX 4 hosts with trunking and VLAN's as decribed here and it seems to work. However, I would like to verify that I really get more bandwith because of the trunk. So I set up af VM with a 10Gb vNIC, and a physical test server with two teamed 1Gb NIC's with LACP enabled at the physical switch (5412zl) so it runs 2Gb/s in both directions. The VM host has four 1-Gb NIC's trunked as descibed on this page. Then I copy a huge GB-file from the VM to my physical test server. But I never get more throughput than approx. 70% of 1 Gb, and the HP teaming software at the physical test server shows that it all runs on one NIC. So my questions are: - Should it actually be possible to use more than one physical NIC's bandwith from a VM when using trunked NIC's? - How can I test that it works when my test as decribed above don't seem to work? Peter :-) Nice article! I have configured one of our ESX 4 hosts with trunking and VLAN’s as decribed here and it seems to work.

However, I would like to verify that I really get more bandwith because of the trunk. So I set up af VM with a 10Gb vNIC, and a physical test server with two teamed 1Gb NIC’s with LACP enabled at the physical switch (5412zl) so it runs 2Gb/s in both directions. The VM host has four 1-Gb NIC’s trunked as descibed on this page.

Then I copy a huge GB-file from the VM to my physical test server. But I never get more throughput than approx. 70% of 1 Gb, and the HP teaming software at the physical test server shows that it all runs on one NIC.

So my questions are:
- Should it actually be possible to use more than one physical NIC’s bandwith from a VM when using trunked NIC’s?
- How can I test that it works when my test as decribed above don’t seem to work?

Peter :-)

]]> By: Damo http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/05/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/comment-page-1/#comment-47244 Damo Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:07:33 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/08/26/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/#comment-47244 Im setting up my first ESX 4 server (were using 2) using an iSCI SAN with a Pro Curve 2910al layer 3 switch and im having some problems with taggin the trunks (so I think). Basically the problem just came up when I tried to assign more than one nic to the vswitch in my esx1 server. I lost the network connection when I did that. So im thinking either I need to set up the esx server to route based on IP hash (which Ive read about but havnt done), or I have tagged the trunks in the wrong vlans (still trying to get my head out of the cisco clouds and into the pro curve ones). So heres how I set up the Pro Curve switch...... Port 1&2 are the management ports for the SAN which is Vlan 102 Port 3-6 are the iSCSI ports for the SAN which is Vlan 101 Port 7-12 are trunked together as Trk1 and tagged in all Vlans (101,102,110 & 10) Port 13-18 are trunked together as Trk2 and tagged in all Vlans (101,102,110 & 10) I also have a workstation Vlan which is Vlan 110 and a servers Vlan which is Vlan 10 I have flow control setup on the trunked ports (not sure if this needs to be set or not) IP Routing is enabled Can someone please tell me what im doing wrong, im more of a network guy than a virtual guy and with my little (I have some) virtual knowledge im finding it hard to work out if my switch is setup correctly or not. I have another engineer here who is competent in VM ware but a little unsure when it comes to the networking side of it. Really appreciate any help Im setting up my first ESX 4 server (were using 2) using an iSCI SAN with a Pro Curve 2910al layer 3 switch and im having some problems with taggin the trunks (so I think).

Basically the problem just came up when I tried to assign more than one nic to the vswitch in my esx1 server. I lost the network connection when I did that. So im thinking either I need to set up the esx server to route based on IP hash (which Ive read about but havnt done), or I have tagged the trunks in the wrong vlans (still trying to get my head out of the cisco clouds and into the pro curve ones).

So heres how I set up the Pro Curve switch……
Port 1&2 are the management ports for the SAN which is Vlan 102
Port 3-6 are the iSCSI ports for the SAN which is Vlan 101
Port 7-12 are trunked together as Trk1 and tagged in all Vlans (101,102,110 & 10)
Port 13-18 are trunked together as Trk2 and tagged in all Vlans (101,102,110 & 10)
I also have a workstation Vlan which is Vlan 110 and a servers Vlan which is Vlan 10
I have flow control setup on the trunked ports (not sure if this needs to be set or not)
IP Routing is enabled

Can someone please tell me what im doing wrong, im more of a network guy than a virtual guy and with my little (I have some) virtual knowledge im finding it hard to work out if my switch is setup correctly or not. I have another engineer here who is competent in VM ware but a little unsure when it comes to the networking side of it.

Really appreciate any help

]]> By: John http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/05/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/comment-page-1/#comment-46977 John Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:00:16 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/08/26/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/#comment-46977 It's already mentioned above, but does anybody know how to provide load balancing with 2 Pnics, each connected to a different Procurve swich? I know the 3500 yl can do that, but is there a way to trick the 2910 to do this? It’s already mentioned above, but does anybody know how to provide load balancing with 2 Pnics, each connected to a different Procurve swich? I know the 3500 yl can do that, but is there a way to trick the 2910 to do this?

]]> By: Bryan http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/05/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/comment-page-1/#comment-45081 Bryan Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:36:13 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/08/26/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/#comment-45081 802.1q trunking on ESX 3.X-4.X requires a bit of uncommon knowledge about the network port group configuration. Setting the network port group VLAN ID to 4095 enables 802.1q trunking for any vmnic attached to that port group. If the VLAN ID is set to none, then it is untagged. And, obviously, if set to any other VLAN ID then only that VLAN ID will pass. NIC teaming has no impact upon trunking. 802.1q trunking on ESX 3.X-4.X requires a bit of uncommon knowledge about the network port group configuration. Setting the network port group VLAN ID to 4095 enables 802.1q trunking for any vmnic attached to that port group. If the VLAN ID is set to none, then it is untagged. And, obviously, if set to any other VLAN ID then only that VLAN ID will pass. NIC teaming has no impact upon trunking.

]]> By: GregD http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/05/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/comment-page-1/#comment-44792 GregD Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:04:14 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/08/26/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/#comment-44792 Murray, Have you created the VLAN on the virtual networks you want to see the tagged VLANS on? I think that may be necessary or the virtual networks will only see the untagged VLAN otherwise. I could be wrong however. Murray, Have you created the VLAN on the virtual networks you want to see the tagged VLANS on? I think that may be necessary or the virtual networks will only see the untagged VLAN otherwise.

I could be wrong however.

]]> By: MurrayJ http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/05/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/comment-page-1/#comment-44464 MurrayJ Thu, 14 May 2009 04:18:18 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/08/26/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/#comment-44464 I have a ProCurve 5412zl and tryed everything above and cannot get the other vlans to work. Trk1 - Trunk vlan 0 (Default) - untagged vlan 106 - tagged vlan 110 - tagged vlan 111 - tagged vSwitches only see vlan 0 What's wrong? I have a ProCurve 5412zl and tryed everything above and cannot get the other vlans to work.
Trk1 - Trunk
vlan 0 (Default) - untagged
vlan 106 - tagged
vlan 110 - tagged
vlan 111 - tagged
vSwitches only see vlan 0

What’s wrong?

]]> By: Dario http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/05/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/comment-page-1/#comment-44316 Dario Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:58:12 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/08/26/vmware-esx-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking-with-hp-procurve/#comment-44316 Finally I have a working virtual infrastructure lab with some old servers and a few hp 1800 (web managed) switches. But before I start learning other topics I have some questions on how vlans are used in a virtual scenario. I'm still a bit confused on where you actually create the vlan. From the post it seems that you do it at layer-2 with the port based tagging method, but then, you would need a port for each ingress connection, the switch would tag it and forward it to each corresponding 802.1Q trunk / tagged link. Is this correct or am I missing something? Isn't it like in the real world where you create the vlan at layer-3 and then use the switching infrastructure for forwarding? I'm asking this because you mention that the switch is tagging the packets that will reach the vSwitch, while to me it seems it just forwards packets based on the vlan id it finds in the tag. Since we are talking about port based vlans, the only case where my switch can modify a packet traveling the trunk is based on that port (PVID). This is the only way I can do it with my (cheap) equipment, but it also make me wonder if there is a better way of doing it, maybe a layer-3 switch? Hope that somebody could clear this to me. Finally I have a working virtual infrastructure lab with some old servers and a few hp 1800 (web managed) switches. But before I start learning other topics I have some questions on how vlans are used in a virtual scenario.
I’m still a bit confused on where you actually create the vlan.
From the post it seems that you do it at layer-2 with the port based tagging method, but then, you would need a port for each ingress connection, the switch would tag it and forward it to each corresponding 802.1Q trunk / tagged link.
Is this correct or am I missing something? Isn’t it like in the real world where you create the vlan at layer-3 and then use the switching infrastructure for forwarding? I’m asking this because you mention that the switch is tagging the packets that will reach the vSwitch, while to me it seems it just forwards packets based on the vlan id it finds in the tag.

Since we are talking about port based vlans, the only case where my switch can modify a packet traveling the trunk is based on that port (PVID). This is the only way I can do it with my (cheap) equipment, but it also make me wonder if there is a better way of doing it, maybe a layer-3 switch?

Hope that somebody could clear this to me.

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