04-27-2009 10:42 AM - edited 03-06-2019 05:24 AM
I'm putting a 2 port channel in on a 4506 running 12.2(25). It's connecting to an ESX server.
Can I get a sanity check on these configs?
interface Port-channel1
description Channel to ESX1 ports 3/42 & 3/38
switchport
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport trunk allowed vlan 200
switchport mode trunk
interface GigabitEthernet3/42
description ESX1 managment
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport trunk allowed vlan 200
switchport mode trunk
speed 1000
duplex full
channel-group 1 mode on
interface GigabitEthernet3/38
description ESX1 managment
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport trunk allowed vlan 200
switchport mode trunk
speed 1000
duplex full
channel-group 1 mode on
The ESX server is intermittently losing connections with this config. I'm not entirely sure it's not an issue with the 4500's switch ports.
Thanks
04-27-2009 10:46 AM
Is there a reason that you have to trunk the connection if only 1 vlan is allowed ? You would also have to get verification from the server guys on how they set up their nics for etherchannel . Make sure they are not trying to use LACP or something like that .
04-27-2009 10:48 AM
It's just the initial configuration, I anticipate using at least 2 more once the environment is stable.
04-27-2009 10:47 AM
Roland
If you are only allowing vlan 200 then why have you configured it as a trunk and not as an access port(s) in vlan 200.
Jon
04-27-2009 11:51 AM
It's just the initial configuration until the environment is stable. We plan to have at least 3 VLAN's total on day 1.
04-27-2009 12:33 PM
If I'm remembering correctly, when we did Etherchannel on ESX boxes it had to be setup for LACP passive. Which is "channel-group # mode passive".
edited to correct my Acronym.
04-27-2009 12:54 PM
Thanks for the suggestion but it doesn't work for me. If I leave the port-channel set to on the switch ports stay up but the virtual switch ports bounce about every 5 minutes.
04-27-2009 01:58 PM
Try removing the config from the port channel interface and see if that keeps your etherchannel up.
I have the same type setup, but my configurations are on the physical ports and not the etherchannel. I'm running a 3750 though, and my etherchannel connects to an AIX server.
HTH,
John
04-28-2009 05:41 AM
Should these statements be in the config for the channel interface? The documentation isn't very clear.
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport trunk allowed vlan 200
switchport mode trunk
interface Port-channel1
description Channel to ESX1 ports 3/42 & 3/38
switchport
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport trunk allowed vlan 200
switchport mode trunk
04-28-2009 05:50 AM
As in my previous post, I don't have anything configured on the etherchannel interface. Adding the physical ports to the channel group is enough to bring the etherchannel up.
HTH,
John
04-28-2009 05:51 AM
Thanks, I wasn't sure if that was what you meant. I'm trying that now.
04-28-2009 07:14 AM
Hi Roland,
Are you connecting to HP blades using virtual connect by any chance?
I had a similar problem, solved by switching on lacp. I also had to keep the port channel (and all its members) shutdown whilst the ESX host booted up. Once the host had started I did a no shut on all the ports.
hth
Kevin
04-28-2009 07:19 AM
Kevin
I saw your post when I searched before making this post. No I'm using an IBM server as the host and when I used lacp it didn't work. I tried both passive and active and neither worked. When I set the channel to "on" the ports transition to an up/up state on the 4500 but the ESX seems to intermittently lose it's connetions.
Thanks for your suggestion though. I will try to reboot the ESX while my ports are shut down and see if that helps.
04-28-2009 07:23 AM
ah, okay!
Only other thing I could suggest is to go through the VMWare hardware compatibility list very very carefully indeed.
ESX is very sensitive to things like firmware revisions on nic's etc.
Good luck.
Kevin
04-29-2009 10:06 AM
Ok, my configs were fine. I got it running with ESX 3 using the mode set to 'on'. The problem was resolved when we set the NIC on the ESX servers to use the ip hash setting.
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