How to setup a VLAN2

[DarrenNJ]

We have a Meraki MX65 firewall, which has 2 Internet ports and I believe 8 LAN ports. We only have one Internet provider (100mbps), so we only use one Internet port. We use one LAN port to connect the firewall to the Meraki switch that we use. Everything is 1GB other than the uplink to the Internet provider.

We have a Dell R710 Server with 4 LAN ports. However we are currently only using LAN1, connected back to the Meraki Switch.

The Dell R710 Server is running the free vmWare vSphere ESXi v6.7. And we have a Fedora linux server setup to run the Debian Asterisk PBX. And a Windows Server 2016 Essentials installed to act as a general file/print server.

According to the PBX tech, the Asterisk PBX must be configured to flow the telephone data streams through the PBX server.

So our goal is to have two VLANs so we can prioritize traffic used for VoIP phones and data streaming apps from within the company (behind the firewall). VLAN1 will be for general data. VLAN2 is for VoIP and Streaming.

The Meraki was configured with help by Meraki, to support the second VLAN.

How to I configure vmWare so the Fedora server is processing the VLAN2 traffic, and as a priority over the VLAN1 traffic?

The Windows Server should not have any of the VLAN2 traffic, just VLAN1.

Hoping you can help.

[vmwareral]

Hi DarrenNJ,

this can be achieved by using two different port groups.

Does your Meraki Switch Support dot1q encapsulation?

Configure VLAN1 und VLAN2 on your Meraki switch and configure it as a tagged vlan on the lan1 port.

Next configure two ports groups on your vSwitch where the NIC on the LAN1 Port resides.

While configuring the port groups add the the corresponding vlan id to the ports groups (eg. PG-VLAN1 enter VLAN ID 1, PG-VLAN2 enter VLAN ID 2).

After that connect your Windows Server to PG-VLAN1 and the Fedora to PG-VLAN2.

As you're using free esxi without any advanced networking features you can only use egress traffic shaping on portgroups.

Anyway you can contact your meraki vendor and ask if QoS based on VLANs is supported on your Switch.

In that case no additional configuration is needed within esxi.

Theres no configuration needed within the guest os.

Hope this helps

[HassanAlKak88]

Hello,

As you mentioned, you are using the LAN1 on server as Uplink connected to Meraki Switch. First this port on switch should configured as Trunk from Switch side.

Secondly, you have to configure a Port Group for each VLAN from ESXi side, following the below:

1. In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to the host.
2. Right-click the host and select Add Networking.
3. In Select connection type, select Virtual Machine Port Group for a Standard Switch and click Next.
4. In Select target device, select an existing standard switch
5. In the Connection settings page, identify traffic through the ports of the group.
6. Type a Network Label for the port group, or accept the generated label.
7. Set the VLAN ID to configure VLAN handling in the port group. (The VLAN ID also reflects the VLAN tagging mode in the port group)

So in your case, create two port groups, per example: PG-VLAN10 with ID 10   &  PG-VLAN20 with ID 20.

From Virtual machine side, go to VM -> Edit Settings -> Network adapter -> assign the port group with the VLAN needed. (Dont forget to assign an IP address for this VLAN with the correct gateway).

Please consider marking this answer "correct" or "helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly.

Cheers,

VCIX6-NV|VCP-NV|VCP-DC|