Comments on: The Great vSwitch Debate – Part 4 http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-4/ My Ramblings about all things Virtual Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:52:13 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Ken Cline http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-4/#comment-259 Ken Cline Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:57:09 +0000 http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/?p=198#comment-259 Yes, it is only with VLAN 4095, which allows the associated port group to see all packets. You should write a blog post about your experience with "link-state" not meeting your needs - especially if you were using link state tracking! Thanks, KLC Yes, it is only with VLAN 4095, which allows the associated port group to see all packets.

You should write a blog post about your experience with “link-state” not meeting your needs – especially if you were using link state tracking!

Thanks,
KLC

]]> By: Sebas http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-4/#comment-244 Sebas Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:45:49 +0000 http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/?p=198#comment-244 Hi Ken, Great article ! We have had some occasions when "link-state" wasn't enough so i'm looking into beaconing now. i don't understand the "vlan type 4095" part from the Article : "Duplicated Packets Occur when Beacon Probing Is Selected Using vmnic and VLAN Type 4095 : http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004373" Will this only occur on vlan 4095 ? Cause if not, im considering to enable beaconing but setting the interval to a much larger amount, so we won't be flooding the physical switches. Keep up the good work ! Sebas Hi Ken,

Great article !
We have had some occasions when “link-state” wasn’t enough so i’m looking into beaconing now.
i don’t understand the “vlan type 4095″ part from the Article :

“Duplicated Packets Occur when Beacon Probing Is Selected Using vmnic and VLAN Type 4095 : http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004373”

Will this only occur on vlan 4095 ?
Cause if not, im considering to enable beaconing but setting the interval to a much larger amount, so we won’t be flooding the physical switches.

Keep up the good work !

Sebas

]]> By: Ken Cline http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-4/#comment-240 Ken Cline Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:59:08 +0000 http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/?p=198#comment-240 Hi Daern, Thanks for the comment. I agree that there are situations where link state alone will not catch a problem - I still prefer not to use beaconing on an ongoing basis. It just goes against my "keep it simple" mantra. It's a great troubleshooting tool and should be accordingly, but if you're having success with your config - go with it ;) Thanks again! KLC Hi Daern,

Thanks for the comment. I agree that there are situations where link state alone will not catch a problem – I still prefer not to use beaconing on an ongoing basis. It just goes against my “keep it simple” mantra. It’s a great troubleshooting tool and should be accordingly, but if you’re having success with your config – go with it ;)

Thanks again!
KLC

]]> By: Daern http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-4/#comment-239 Daern Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:30:56 +0000 http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/?p=198#comment-239 Good article, thanks. One thing to note is that, while link state tracking does work for some scenarios, if you have a glitch (as we have done) where a host pNIC simply stops passing traffic, any VMs on this pNIC will die and remain dead until you manually intervene. Likewise, if your helpful switch admin makes an error in the VLAN config on the switch and (for example) deletes a couple of VLANs from a single port, again this will result in an extended outage for your VMs. Beaconing will catch both of these issues, although as I'm finding now, *knowing* that this has happened is something of a challenge... Good article, thanks.

One thing to note is that, while link state tracking does work for some scenarios, if you have a glitch (as we have done) where a host pNIC simply stops passing traffic, any VMs on this pNIC will die and remain dead until you manually intervene.

Likewise, if your helpful switch admin makes an error in the VLAN config on the switch and (for example) deletes a couple of VLANs from a single port, again this will result in an extended outage for your VMs.

Beaconing will catch both of these issues, although as I’m finding now, *knowing* that this has happened is something of a challenge…

]]> By: The Great vSwitch Debate – Part 2 « Ken’s Virtual Reality http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-4/#comment-208 The Great vSwitch Debate – Part 2 « Ken’s Virtual Reality Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:26:18 +0000 http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/?p=198#comment-208 [...] The Great vSwitch Debate – Part 4 In Part 4, I cover fault detection and the Cisco Discovery Protocol. [...] [...] The Great vSwitch Debate – Part 4 In Part 4, I cover fault detection and the Cisco Discovery Protocol. [...]

]]> By: Welcome to vSphere-land! » Networking Links http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-4/#comment-155 Welcome to vSphere-land! » Networking Links Fri, 08 May 2009 02:39:37 +0000 http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/?p=198#comment-155 [...] Cline’s The Great vSwitch Debate Series: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Enabling Netflow on Virtual Switches Configuring and Troubleshooting N-Port ID [...] [...] Cline’s The Great vSwitch Debate Series: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Enabling Netflow on Virtual Switches Configuring and Troubleshooting N-Port ID [...]

]]> By: Pebbles, Volume 1 (ESD Records) » Virtual Private LAN Service http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-4/#comment-140 Pebbles, Volume 1 (ESD Records) » Virtual Private LAN Service Tue, 05 May 2009 10:25:04 +0000 http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/?p=198#comment-140 [...] The Great vSwitch Debate - Part 4 [...] [...] The Great vSwitch Debate – Part 4 [...]

]]> By: Ken Cline http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-4/#comment-61 Ken Cline Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:54:24 +0000 http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/?p=198#comment-61 Interesting, indeed. If I click on the link, it goes to your URL, but brings up abundantbible.com & if I view source, the HTML is correct...the href points to you, too -- perhaps someone has hijacked your DNS entry? Interesting, indeed. If I click on the link, it goes to your URL, but brings up abundantbible.com & if I view source, the HTML is correct…the href points to you, too — perhaps someone has hijacked your DNS entry?

]]> By: Rob D. http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-4/#comment-60 Rob D. Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:35:56 +0000 http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/?p=198#comment-60 Interesting, my first comment points to some site called abundantbible.com instead of my blog @ http://hdsurvivor.blogspot.com/ Interesting, my first comment points to some site called abundantbible.com instead of my blog @ http://hdsurvivor.blogspot.com/

]]> By: Duncan http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-4/#comment-59 Duncan Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:29:03 +0000 http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/?p=198#comment-59 Also, don't use beacon probing when you only have 2 nics... there's no way of detecting which nic failed with only two. Great article again Ken! Also, don’t use beacon probing when you only have 2 nics… there’s no way of detecting which nic failed with only two.

Great article again Ken!

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