Solved: Nexus 1000v in a mixed speed ESX host environment

Robert Slusar · ‎02-07-2012

We have what I consider to mixed speed ESX host environment.

By that I mean that the 1000v is installed on some ESX hosts that connect to the physical network via multiple 1 Gbit adapters to a 3120 and some that connect via 10 Gbit pass through interfaces to a Nexus 2K.

Currently I have only one uplink port-profile supporting both types of ESX hosts.

Due to the design of our 5K/2K connections and the level of code that we running on the 5K's we are unable to use LACP and port channels. That being the case I am using MAC pinning.

The 3120's are stacked and I could use LACP and portchannels.

A further complication is that we need to exclude 2 vlans that support server backup traffic from passing through the 1000v to the 3120's. Since the 10 Gbit ESX hosts have only two interfaces the backup vlans will need to traverse the 1000v for them.

Can the 1000'v support two uplink port-profiles, one to support the 1 Gbit ESX hosts and one for the 10 Gbit ESX Hosts?

Thanks!

Bob

mipetrin · ‎02-07-2012

Hi Robert,

Most definitely. You can configure multiple uplink port-profiles and assign them to only the relevant physical NICs.

As long as you are keeping the uplink port-profiles the same across all uplinks of the specific ESX host (1 uplink port-profile for 1GB ESX hosts and another uplink port-profile for 10GB hosts), it is straight forward.

If you start splitting the uplinks on a specific host, for example 1GB with 2 uplink port-profiles, then you need to be careful so as to not overlap VLANs. Otherwise, in the example, the VEM on the 1GB host would have issues determining which uplink port-profile to use - as both are forwarding the same VLAN.

Thanks,

Michael

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mipetrin · ‎02-07-2012

Hi Robert,

Most definitely. You can configure multiple uplink port-profiles and assign them to only the relevant physical NICs.

As long as you are keeping the uplink port-profiles the same across all uplinks of the specific ESX host (1 uplink port-profile for 1GB ESX hosts and another uplink port-profile for 10GB hosts), it is straight forward.

If you start splitting the uplinks on a specific host, for example 1GB with 2 uplink port-profiles, then you need to be careful so as to not overlap VLANs. Otherwise, in the example, the VEM on the 1GB host would have issues determining which uplink port-profile to use - as both are forwarding the same VLAN.

Thanks,

Michael

Robert Slusar · ‎02-08-2012

Michael - Thank you!

I will build the new uplink port-profile and let you know how it goes!

Bob

will.wylie · ‎02-16-2012

I have a similar issue. Just received a batch of hosts with a single dual-port 10Gb PCI card and 4 on-board 1Gb NIC's.

We are using the Nexus 1000V in 3 other clusters, and this will be a new cluster. The desire is that we use the 10Gb primarily, and then use the 1Gb as a backup if the 10Gb PCI Card fails.

Is this possible? The 1Gb uplinks would only be used if the 10Gb adapter failed. From what I am reading, we would need two seperate uplink profiles configured with different VLAN's.

I didn't do the planning on this, just trying to work it out so we have redundancy.