ESXI 7 VLAN ID setting

[Gurenchee1985]

Hi, when I set my VLAN ID (optional) on my host, the network lost and even a direct connection to the host can't ping through. What has gone wrong?

[Mark Edwards]

Is this happening when configuring the management interfaces in the DCUI? Do you know if the switchport(s) on the other end is an Access port or a Trunk Port?

I strongly suspect it is configured as an Access Port. In which case the switch is expecting "untagged" traffic, but you are sending it "tagged" traffic, which the switch doesn't recognize, and therefore a loss of connectivity occurs.

Assuming it IS an access port, and configured for the correct (native) VLAN on the switch end, then you don't need to set (ie tag) the VLAN on the ESXi end, just leave it blank.

HTH

 

[Gurenchee1985]

Hi HTH,

Yes when I changed the VLAN ID on the dcui to any digit other than blank, the connection to the vsphere will lost it connection. I did try to set my Cisco 9300 to trunk port with vlan 16 as well but the same behaviour. What else could have gone wrong in this case?

Thanks

Guren

[Mark Edwards]

HTH = Hope this helps, its not my name 

Its hard to say what the issue is without seeing your config or knowing your setup, eg do you have LAGs or LACP enabled?

What type of switch are your management interfaces connected to on the ESXi end? Standard or Distributed? Personally i would keep the management ports on a standard switch, and configure the physical interfaces, as access ports rather than trunk ports, then leave the VLAN blank as i mentioned above. This is a perfectly normal (and solid) configuration. This is VMware best practice and offers improved recovery capability, especially if you lose vCenter and can't then manage the switch, which impedes recovery (which i have seen happen before).

[Gurenchee1985]

Lol.

My switch on esxi should be distributed.

If I have to go for trunk port, should I use native vlan or vlan on the switch setting?

 

[Sachchidanand Upadhyay]

I think you have a single ESXi host and that case no requirement of distributed switch, it only required if you are managing your ESXi host through vCneter.

Now on networking part, either:

Make your uplink port to trunk and tag your ESXi host with the respective vlan.

OR

Make your uplink port to trunk and on switch side make the respective vlan as native, in that case no vlan tagging at ESXi host.

Making your switch an access port will restrict you to a single vlan.

Regards,

Sachchidanand

[Mark Edwards]

---

 wrote

If I have to go for trunk port, should I use native vlan or vlan on the switch setting?

If you're using a trunk port, yes, you must tag it as VLAN "16"

If you are losing connectivity, maybe its switch configuration issue for your trunk port settings. Post them here and maybe we can spot something.

Are your management interfaces shared with other traffic, or are they dedicated? Always make them dedicated if you can for resilience. Then you can make them access ports, the config is simpler and recovery is simpler.