Shared Uplink Sets and VMware

[fishmn]

Greetings, Has anyone setup a single shared uplink set that can be used for both single Windows blade hosts and VMware ESX hosts in the same enclosure? For VMware ESX, we do not want Virtual Connect the strip the VLAN tags on packets but instead pass the tagged traffic to ESX where it strips out the tags into its port groups. Whereas we want VC to strip the tags and "disperse" as required into VC's Ethernet Networks. Can we do this with a single shared uplink set? Thanks, Ron

[David Billot]

You can support both ESX hosts that use host-based VLAN tagging, as well as a Windows server that don't have tagged frames in the the same enclosure, just not in the same Shared Uplink Set. For ESX hosts, you will always use a VC Ethernet network (not a Shared Uplink Set.) The VC Ethernet network will then pass the tagged traffic from the ESX host, through the VC-Enet module, and up to the uplink connected switch in an unmodified stated (hence, tagged traffic will still stay in tact until it reaches your upstream switch.) Your Windows hosts on the other hand, will use either a VC Ethernet network or a Shared Uplink Set depending on the type of traffic required. The net-net is this, if you are implementing host-based VLAN tagging such as with ESX, then you will never use a Shared Uplink Set for those networks. For more details, as well as step-by-step configurations for both ESX and other solutions, download the document (Virtual Connect 201 Lab Guide) that is in the Files section of this forum.