BL685c G7 + Flex 10 + ESX 4.1

[Kewlicks]

Hi all and thanks for reading.

I have an issue with seems to be particular to the BL685c G7 blades and ESX 4.1. I have the same exact setup using BL685c G6 blades and it all works fine.

The setup is as follows:

Server is a BL685c G7 with Emulex ServerImages 10Gb Network cards installed. Four LOM devices.

Server profile contains 4 ports assigned and each is set to "Multiple Networks". Within each Multiple networks configuration, I have assigned mutlple Ethernet networks, each with their own VLAN ID. Each VLAN network is operating as normal if I assign the profile to a non-ESX server.

On the ESX 4.1 server, I have created a virtual switch with a number of portgroups assigned. Each port group has it's own VLAN ID added and the VLAN ID matches what is presented (using Vitual Connect) in the server profile.

The issue is, when I assign the port groups to a Virtual Machine, I have no connectivity to the default router on the particular VLAN. It appears VLAN tagging isn't working.

If I swap the BL685c G7 with a G6, it works as I expected.

For the G7, I have had to remove the VLAN tagging from the ESX and present single VLAN nics to the ESX host, within the server profile, to get around the issue.

I'm using VC FW 3.10, latest FW on the BL685c G7 and OA FW is at 3.11. Latest ESX 4.1 download from HP (Dated Sep 2010)

Has anyone had this issue with the G7 blades and VLAN tagging in ESX 4.1? Could it be an issue with the Emluex 10Gb FLex10 cards considering the G6 has broadcom Flex10 cards?

TIA

Steve

[chuckk281]

Some things to look at:

1. A new NC551m driver ver. 2.102.440 also  the latest NIC firmware ver. 2.102.453. These are for the BE2 ServerEngines NICs.

2. We have released the next version of Virtual Connect: VC 3.15. You should download and try it.

[Kewlicks]

Thanks for the reply.

I was already running at that driver revision, so I've updated the Nic FW and VC FW to the revisions you have stated.

This appears to have fixed the problem and VLAN tagging is now working the same for the G7 as it does for the G6.

Thanks for the advice.

Steve