topic Re: Cannot add vNIC on Flex 10 in BladeSystem - General

Cannot add vNIC on Flex 10

Twister — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:26:24 GMT

I have a pair of Flex-10 modules in SLot 1 & 2 of my C7000 running latest firmware etc.
I have connected the CX4 cable to a pair of Cisco switches and trunked multiple VLAN's over these links.
The VLANs are created and defined under a single Shared Uplink Set with 1 CX4 as active and the other as standby.
I wanted to be able to use 6 vnics for my BL490C server for VMWare.
When I add connections over 2 in my server profile the 3 and subsequent NICs are mapped to the pass-thru ethernet module I have connected to the MEZZ 2 card via slot 5 & 6

How do I make use of the other 6 vNICs as I want to remove the MEZZ 2 card from the scenario.

Re: Cannot add vNIC on Flex 10

HEM_2 — Mon, 31 May 2010 17:29:33 GMT

In your profile, Add a total of 8 network ports. Have 3 and 4 set to unassigned and have 1,2, 5-8 set to the networks you want.

When the profile is assigned you should get this mapping:

1 LOM1:a
2 LOM2:a
3 MZ2:1
4 MZ2:2
5 LOM1:b
6 LOM2:b
7 LOM1:c
8 LOM2:c

Re: Cannot add vNIC on Flex 10

Twister — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:01:00 GMT

Thanks, I can see the other vNICs now.

However it doesn't seem to like having the same network on multiple vNICs?

I wanted to be able to say use 3 vNICs for vlans x,y & z and then put vlans a,b & c on the other vNICs for redundancy.

Re: Cannot add vNIC on Flex 10

The Brit — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:08:23 GMT

I'm not sure of the reasoning behind your need to put the same network on multiple NICs.

put vLan_x on LOM1:a and vLan_a on LOM2:a,
then vLan_y on LOM1:b and vLan_b on LOM2:b,
and vLan_y on LOM1:c and vLan_c on LOM2:c.

Redundancy and failover it achieved by teaming the pairs a-x, b-y, c-z.

If it is a bandwidth issue, then this adjustable between FlexNic ports, upto an aggregate of 10Gb.

Dave

Re: Cannot add vNIC on Flex 10

Twister — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:11:18 GMT

My reasoning is if either LOM fails I have lost conncetivity to those VLANs from the ESX host.
The idea is to do 2 things but primarily #1

1. Allow for failure of a NIC Port
2. Allow for 3 NICs for aggregated bandwidth

Re: Cannot add vNIC on Flex 10

Steven Clementi — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:03:55 GMT

Have you tried defining the "network" a particular nic uses as "Multiple Networks"? Then you can tell it which networks it can use that are configured in the VC Domain.

WHat do you think you will gain from aggregating 3 vNICs?

You are still limited to the 10GB port speed...

Since we are probably talking about embedded nic's here... you are more likely to lose something else before EVER losing a nic port. And if you lost a nic port... it is likely you will lose booth nic ports as there is something probably wrong with the embedded circuitry... requiring a system board replacement.

While dealing with blades, you are probably better off taking care of redundancy with an additional blade... especially in a virtual environment.

Steven

Re: Cannot add vNIC on Flex 10

HEM_2 — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:07:07 GMT

that's normal....

2 or more FlexNICs(a, b, c, d) from the same Flex-10 port i.e. LOM1 can not be a member of the same Virtual Connect Network.

But, you can have duplicate networks across LOMs.

Valid (and provides redundancy):
LOM1:a -> vlan_1
LOM2:a -> vlan_1
LOM1:b -> vlan_2
LOM2:b -> vlan_2
LOM1:c -> vlan_3
LOM2:c -> vlan_3
LOM1:d -> vlan_4
LOM2:d -> vlan_4

Invalid (and doesn't provide redundancy):

LOM1:a -> vlan_1
LOM2:a -> vlan_2
LOM1:b -> vlan_3
LOM2:b -> vlan_4
LOM1:c -> vlan_1
LOM2:c -> vlan_2
LOM1:d -> vlan_3
LOM2:d -> vlan_4