Configure Multiple Networks via command line

[timcross]

We have 11 VC stacked domains we have been managing with the command line pretty successfully so far. One thing I cannot find how to do is to configure the Multiple Networks option in a servers profile under a NIC port config via the command line. This is using Map VLAN tags. For example, in these 11 domains, we have 16 ESX server profiles. If we need to add a VLAN to the ESX farm, I would like a way to add it to each NIC configured for Multiple Networks.

[brian plume]

You can save yourself a lot of time and headaches by enabling VLAN tunneling on the virtual connect modules, and then you don't have to go in and add VLANs each time. The cool part is that if you're running the latest version of the VC firmware, you can do this on-the-fly. In previous versions you had to shut down every blade to make the change, then power them back on.

[timcross]

Only problem is we are running a mix of standalone blades and ESX servers in one enclosure so I need to provide both capabilities to the servers, not just tunneling.

[brian plume]

You can. For those servers/blades that need mapped, you just create a shared uplink set and go with the procedure you followed before, and the ESX hosts will go with VLAN tunneling.

[Steven McLean]

So, if you want to Multiple Networks to the server NIC, first the Domain must be in MAP VLAN mode. The profile can be created through the following script; add profile Server-1 -nodefaultenetconn add enet-connection Server-1 pxe=Enabled add server-port-map Server-1:1 Prod-104-1 VLanId=104 add server-port-map Server-1:1 Prod-105-1 VLanId=105 add enet-connection Server-1 pxe=Disabled add server-port-map Server-1:2 Prod-104-2 VLanId=104 add server-port-map Server-1:2 Prod-105-2 VLanId=105 Assign profile Server-1 enc0:1 This is a simple script that will create a profile, with TWO NICs, and then configure both NICs for VLANs 104 and 105. So, the result would be that both NICs will show as "Multiple Network", configured for both VLANs. If you wanted to set a specific port that has already bend created to Multiple VLANs, then the following statements could be run against an existing NIC, where the number just before the Network name is the port number you are configuring. Such as the following would add 4 Networks to NIC 3 of Profile Server-1. add server-port-map Server-1:3 Prod-102-1 VLanId=102 add server-port-map Server-1:3 Prod-103-1 VLanId=103 add server-port-map Server-1:3 Prod-104-1 VLanId=104 add server-port-map Server-1:3 Prod-105-1 VLanId=105 Hope this helps. Also, using a Shared Uplink Set and configuring multiple VLANs is an effective way to present one or many VLANs to a server NIC, when the VLAN count and/or rate of change is relatively low. If you have many VLANs, then sometimes VLAN Tunneling would make sense, in this case with few VLANs and the need to support Virtual and native hosts, a SUS configured this way will minimize the need for additional uplinks. Both options are available to provide flexibility. Regards, Steve [Updated on 12/18/2009 5:07 PM]