Configuring Data Plane Switch Connections

You can use the Cisco 3750, 4503, or 6500 switch to provide connectivity for the data plane of the N1 Provisioning Server software. In a typical scenario, the data plane switch is connected to the gigabit VLAN-capable network interface cards (NIC) of the provisioning servers, and to the switch ports of each chassis. The data plane switch can also be optionally attached to an external router or switch.

The presence or absence of these connections and the number of ports used depends on the network topology implemented. Ensure that the duplex and speed on both ends of the connection is properly auto-negotiated. Otherwise, network performance might be adversely affected. Also, if multiple ports are used for improving bandwidth between switches or switch—router connections, enable link aggregation on these ports.

Refer to the Cisco documentation for login procedures and commands.

Before setting VLAN rules to ports, VLANs need to exist in the switch's VLAN database. Log onto the data plane switch, and type the following commands:

c3750-eng1>enable
Password:c3750-eng1# vlan database
c3750-eng1(vlan)# vlan 1 name DefaultVlan media Ethernet state active
c3750-eng1(vlan)# vlan 4 name IdleVlan media Ethernet state active
c3750-eng1(vlan)# vlan 8 name ImageVlan media Ethernet state active
c3750-eng1(vlan)# vlan 10 name VLAN10 media Ethernet state active
c3750-eng1(vlan)# vlan 11 name VLAN11 media Ethernet state active.
.
.

Ensure that the data plane trunk connections to the server gigabit NICs and chassis NETP0 ports allow traffic on VLANs 4, 8, and 10 through 255.

When done creating all VLANs, press control-z or end to leave the configuration mode.

The following describes the configuration steps for ports involved in these connections.

To Configure Data Plane Switch Ports

Steps

1. Connect ports to the external switch or router.

   Configure these ports as trunk ports that allow tagged packets using dot1q notation. By default, most Cisco switches allow all created VLANs to pass through if a port is in trunk mode. However, if this behavior is not implicit to the external switch being used, explicitly set the ports to allow all VLANs to pass through.

   For example, on the Cisco 3750 and 4503 switches, the set of commands to achieve this for port GigabitEthernet 0/6 are as follows:

   c3750-eng1>enable Password: c3750-eng1#config term Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z. c3750-eng1(config)#interface Gigabitethernet 0/6 c3750-eng1(config-if)#switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q c3750-eng1(config-if)#switchport mode trunk c3750-eng1(config-if)#^Z c3750-eng1#

2. Connect ports to the NetP0 switch port of the chassis.

   Configure the remaining ports in the same manner and execute the same commands as described in the previous step.

3. Connect the port to a VLAN-aware NIC of the provisioning server.

   Configure the port in the same manner and execute the same commands as described in step 1.