Extending VLANs From Cisco Switch to GbE2c (438030-B21)

[Shiraj Fernando]

Hi,

We have two GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switches (438030-B21) on a c7000 Blade Enclosure.

We had some issues while extending existing VLANs on a Cisco Switch on the LAN to a GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch. Even though the VLANs were created and trunk port defined the Blade Servers were unable to communicate with the external network.

We found two VLAN configuration methods that worked.

First Configuration:
/cfg/l2/vlan
ena
add
/cfg/port /tag ena - to create tag port to cisco switch.
/cfg/port /pvid

Second Configuration:
/cfg/l2/vlan
def 1 21 22 - where 21 & 22 are trunks to cisco switch.

I noted that in both methods the tag port is added to the VLAN. I've tried both methods and I was able to ping from the blade server to outside and from outside to the blade server.

I want to make sure out of the methods above which one is correct.

Another problem I'm facing is that on the second GbE2c Iâ m not getting the menu based interface and Iâ m unable to execute the VLAN configuration commands.

I have attached a capture of the telnet session to the switch A & B.

I performed a reset on the switch using the virtual reset button available on the Onboard Administrator but still Iâ m not getting the menu based interface.

I checked the flash image on both the switches and they are Software Version 2.0.0 (FLASH image1) on both switches.

I had to use show system-info command to get these details on the second switch where as on the first switch I can use /info/sys/general.

Appreciate if someone could assist me to figure out this behavior on the second switch.

Best regards,
Shiraj.

[Pieter 't Hart · Accepted solution]

Another problem I'm facing is that on the second GbE2c I'm not getting the menu based interface and I'm unable to execute the VLAN configuration commands.

Both switches are in the same enclosure?
Are you sure they are managed separately?
I think one of them is the "master" from wich both (all) switches in the enclosure are managed centraly.
This would explain being unable to manage vlans from the second switch.

[Shiraj Fernando]

Got the config working by referring "Deploying the HP GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch for HP c-Class BladeSystem into a Cisco-based Network" document.