VMWare / 4826GTS SMLT Configuration issue

[nodeisup]

Hi,

I have four Avaya 4826GTS switch that they are stacked. I want to connect a VMware server to this stack. This server has four network adapters which every two, have same media type.

I read 'Resilient Data Center Solutions for VMware ESX Servers Technical Configuration Guide' and I've tried to configure this stack but without success.

Some commands are not compatible and I couldn't replace them with some other commands.

could you please help me to solve the problem?


Here is my configuration. For test, I want to configure first only two SFP port (4/25-26) as Link aggrigation port on one switch, when it works I'll put them on different switch and then configure next two other switch ports.


Here is my configurations for first two ports which have same media type, I removed configurations which were not related:


!
vlan ports 4/25-26 tagging tagAll
vlan configcontrol flexible
vlan members 1 NONE
vlan members 42 1/2-26,2/1-26,3/2-26,4/1-26
vlan members 44 1/1-25,2/1-25,3/1-25,4/1-26
vlan ports 1/2-26,2/ALL,3/2-26,4/ALL pvid 42
no auto-pvid
!
qos if-group name allUpLinks class trusted
qos if-assign port 4/25-26 name allUpLinks
!
! *** MLT (Phase 1) ***
!
mlt 24 name "VMware1" enable member 4/25-26
!
interface FastEthernet ALL
spanning-tree port 4/25-26 learning disable
exit
!
! *** VLAN Phase 2***
!
vlan mgmt 42
!
! *** MLT (Phase 2) ***
!
mlt spanning-tree 24 stp 1 learning disable
!
! *** VLACP ***
!
vlacp enable
vlacp macaddress 180.c200.f
interface FastEthernet ALL
vlacp port 1/23-24,1/26,2/26,3/23-24,3/26,4/25-26 timeout short
vlacp port 1/23-24,1/26,2/26,3/23-24,3/26,4/25-26 timeout-scale 5
vlacp port 4/25-26 enable
exit
!

[MatzeKS]

Hi nodeisup,

VLACP is only for protecting switch to switch connections and must be configured with same values on both side.
To get your VM active please deactivate VLACP on your ports 4/25-26.

Good luck

[nodeisup]

Hi MatzeKS,

how is the load-balancing? Would be also the network traffic balanced between switch and VMware on both of ports?

Regards

[MatzeKS]

Per default the MLT on switch side is L2-based (MLT type basic).
Both/all links of your MLT will be used as one logical link.
On VM side you have to decide which algorithm you will use, as far as I know you have to create a "bondx" on unix-based hosts.

Good luck

[nodeisup]

I removed 'vlacp port 4/25-26 enable' on my configuration and then connected the VMware server to the stack with every single port. The client on VMware was reachable. But when I connected both cables to the switch the client is not reachable any more.

Do you have any tips?

[Théo]

Hi,

What king of aggregation do you use from Vmware side ?

You say  :
"Some commands are not compatible and I couldn't replace them with some other commands"
Can you specify which ones ?

I have already resloved this issue with the MLT "advance" mode. The loadbalancing algo will use IP address and not mac address.
command : mlt <id> loadbalance advance

Not sure that it will work, it depends of VMWare aggregation type.

[Telair]

Apparently VMWare 5.1 now includes support for LACP which you might want to try out.  What I like about LACP is it is an active protocol so you can check it's status to make sure it's working on your switches.  I'll link to an article where it is explained how to use it in VMWare.

http://wahlnetwork.com/2012/10/15/using-lacp-with-a-vsphere-distributed-switch-5-1/

[nodeisup]

Thank you for you support. The problem has been solved.

The problem was on two side:

- On WMware side! For management VLAN I had to configure the server and the switch simultaneously.
If I configure trunk ports (tagging tagAll), I couldn't reach the server so when I configured the server first, the server tried to communicate shortly with switch and cause switch has no trunk configuration, aftere awhile the server removed management VLAN configuration so I had to configure the switch shortly after server configuration.

- However I disabled mlt link and then I configured it, if I enabled it it didn't work and I had to disable it and enable it