Problems configuring c7000 with 4x Gbe2c in a Cisco Network

[M2CV]

Hello all,

I am moving on to getting my c7000 up and running with three ESXi hosts and one Win2k8r2 mgmt server, fc storage (which is working fine)

I am having trouble with the network config.

I will use the terms "VLAN trunk" for tagging and "HP trunk(ec)" for link aggregation.

I am planning to configure the four switches with HP Trunk/Cisco Etherchannel to a working Cisco environment. (3560 core switch)

I have 10 available ports in the cisco switch, which makes the following connections:

bay1: 2 uplinks into one hp trunk(ec)
bay2: 2 uplinks into one hp trunk(ec)
bay5: 3 uplinks into one hp trunk(ec)
bay6: 3 uplinks into one hp trunk(ec)

All will be handling VLAN trunked traffic.

ESXi is installed and configured with 2 vswitches with the pair of nics as active/active

However - I cannot make this work.
My problem is:

1. When configuring one uplink on the switch in bay 1 everything works fine. As soon as I try to enable one uplink on the switch in bay 2 I get broadcasts storms and the network goes down.
2. Enabling switch 1 and 3 (bay 1 and 3) works fine
3. Am I supposed to enable the static interconnect trunk on port 17 and 18?

[Antonio Milanese · Accepted solution]

Hello,

having multiple uplink paths without (M)STP configured and with internal link (horizontally crossconnect, port17 /18 as you state) results in loops as you've experienced.

So with your supposed tolology i would configure your enviroment to handle redundant path with MSTP using two or more instances to load balance VLANs across uplinks.

Gbe2c blades are like any other L3 switches out there so you must handle loop by your own =)

>ESXi is installed and configured with 2 vswitches with the pair of nics as active/active

If you have half height blades you cannot channel the two nic and using load balancing (ip hash) polices 'coz each one is hardwired to different horizontal bay..so use route on port ID or failover order to spread traffic accross nics/uplinks (Gbe2c support ULD to propagate uplink fails).

Have a good day,

Antonio

[M2CV]

Thanks Antonio,

I will try MSTP and see if that solves my problem.

Points awarded :)