VMware vSphere

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  • 1.  AutoDeploy and VLANs

    Posted Oct 02, 2024 05:34 AM

    Hi All...

    Thanks for taking the time to read this.

    I have a strange issue with AutoDeploy and VLANs.

    My setup..

    Latest version 7 of vCSA - 7.0.u3s.

    4 Separate VLANs- We will call them 5. 10, 20 and 30.

    DHCP Server which provides IP addresses to all vlans using DHCP Relay/IP Helper configuration on the gateways for the vlans. It also provides the TFTP service for the initial PXE boot file.

    Three UCS Blades on VLAN 10, three on VLAN 20 and three on VLAN 30. UCS Profiles for the blades set the VLANs as native. All are UEFI boot.

    Vcenter resides on VLAN 5 and firewall rules are in place between all the VLANs.

    The issue..

    Auto deploying a blade on VLAN 5 (the same network as the vCenter) works fine. The blade obtains an IP from the DHCP, loads the iPXE file from the TFTP server, connects to 6501 on the vCenter and downloads the tramp file. The blade self registers in auto deploy and a stateless image is deployed.

    So the AutoDeploy system works.

    Deploying a blade on VLAN10 also works fine. The blade obtains the correct DHCP address from the DHCP server, boots the PXE boot file and connects. All fine.

    Deploying a blade on VLAN20 or VLAN30 fails. The blade gets an IP from the correct DHCP range, boots the PXE file, connects to 6501 for the tramp file and registers itself in the autodeploy database, but then stops. It just sits at /vmw/rbd/register with a lots of ....... and eventually times out. 

    Looking at the /vmw/rbd/host page I see the host information recorded by vCenter. I also find the boot.cfg and PXE file. All appear correct.

    I have completed a packet trace between the vCenter and the PXE boot between blades on VLAN20 and VLAN30. The packet trace appears to show the boot sequence on the blades appears to stop when vCenter is about to send host profile image down to the blade. Or I should say, vCenter stops attempting to send the ESXi image. On a packet trace using a blade on VLAN10, I see the ESXi image data being sent.

    Does anyone have an idea why AutoDeploy would work for some vlans and not others? The firewall is configured the same for all vLANs. The vlans are in the same firewall group.

    I know best practice is not to use vlans for AutoDeploy, but the reason behind that is I believe there could be a possible issue with DHCP. I don't have that issue. All blades get an IP and boot the TFTP file.

    Any ideas / thoughts would be appreciated !



  • 2.  RE: AutoDeploy and VLANs

    Posted Oct 03, 2024 01:34 AM

    We had an issue with vCenter u3r where the new ipxe version on the tftp did not work with vlan configurations. On the boot screen the server showed that vlan config failed and pxe boot went into a loop. Your issue seems bit different but might be worth trying.

    We resolved it by replacing the tftp files with older ones. I believe it was u3o.

    We did not look further into this issue since vsphere 8 upgrade did work out of the box for us. 

    Best regards

    Andi


    Original Message