Out of the box the EVO:RAIL uses the default (V)LAN for the management network. On most switches this is using VLAN1 and is setup for all ports on the physical switch. Don’t forget that this could be changed by a network admin on the physical switch to be VLAN999 another identity if they so wished. In the physical world, merely plugging in the 10GbE interfaces (vmnic0 and vmnic1) of the EVO:RAIL nodes means you have patched the node to this “default network” or “default VLAN”. Of course, it might be that the “Management Network” is VLAN3241, and you use VLAN Tagging (IEEE 802.1Q) for the management network. In this case some changes to these defaults needs to happen first before embarking on the EVO:RAIL Configuration.
Firstly, on each node you need to enable the VLAN Tagging settings for the “Management Network”. Of course there many, many different ways of doing that – but the method I’ve been promoting without partners is to do that via the VMware ESXi “Direct Console User Interface” often abbreviated to the DCUI. The nice thing about making this change using the DCUI is that it doesn’t require special IP communications or special software. The steps can be carried out by using screen attached to each node with a keyboard for instance, or by using the on-board BMC port that’s available on each of the four nodes that make up the EVO:RAIL appliance. And the handy thing about this approach is you can make these changes – without simultaneously disconnecting yourself from the system.
So on each of the four nodes I first enable the interactive command-line of the DCUI. This interactive mode is like having a SSH session to the host without the need of PuTTy or valid IP address to the host to make the change. On brand new EVO:RAIL the login to the DCUI will be user account “root” and the password of “Passw0rd!”. Once into the DCUI you can enable the interactive DCUI command-line using menu:
>> Troubleshooting Mode Options >> Enable ESXi Shell
Once enabled you can use the [ESC] key to back out of the DCUI, and then use the keystroke [Alt]+[F1] to reach command-line UI. From there you can use the esxcfg-vswitch command to enable VLAN Tagging for the VMware ESXi host network:
esxcfg-vswitch -p “Management Network” –v 3241 vSwitch0
Of course that does mean that the Virtual Center Server Appliance and the Log Insight Virtual Appliance need their portgroup settings updating. Using the same interactive prompt at the DCUI you can make this change:
esxcfg-vswitch -p “VM Network” –v 3241 vSwitch0
For good measure I would probably carry out some ping test before proceeding as both the EVO:RAIL Nodes and the “System VMs” are now on a different network. Remember in my case both the vCSA and VMware ESXi hosts are now on different ‘network’ or VLAN. So I would need to make sure my laptop could speak to that VLAN as well. So from the workstation/laptop connected to the switch make sure you can ping the EVO:RAIL’s default IP address of 192.168.10.200. Remember you will need to assign to your workstation a temporary IP address for this to work.
Finally, it’s tempting to also change the static IP address for the vCenter Server Appliance considering it’s been moved to a new network. I would not recommend this – remember it’s the EVO:RAIL job to assign IP address configurations for all the components that come with – vCenter, ESX, LogInsight and Partner VMs. So let the EVO:RAIL Configuration engine do the job it was designed for and let it change the default static IP address for you.
This blogpost is intended as quick way to get the message out about how to make EVO:RAIL work with VLAN Tagging for the management network. If you want to learn more I would recommend consulting our new “Network User Guide” on our product page.
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/evorail/vmware-evorail-network-user-guide.pdf
Also available on our product page is new Setup Checklist and ttp://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/evorail/vmware-evorail-network-configuration-table.pdf”>Network Configuration Table documents too.