Virtual Switches

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Matt Helm

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Jan 26, 2018, 4:04:19 PM1/26/18
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Perhaps I am misunderstanding / misusing the model, but it isn't clear to me how to add virtual switches.

Is the best solution to just create the virtual switch like any other virtual machine, and give it the role of Virtual Switch, and then edit to add interfaces as needed?


Damien Garros

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Jan 26, 2018, 6:04:03 PM1/26/18
to Matt Helm, NetBox
Hi matt 

As far as I can tell, you need to create the (at least 2) devices first
and later, you can group them into a Virtual Chassis
There is a button "Create a Virtual chassis" at the bottom of the device list

It was not clear for me either :) 

Damien



On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 1:04 PM Matt Helm <code.na...@gmail.com> wrote:
Perhaps I am misunderstanding / misusing the model, but it isn't clear to me how to add virtual switches.

Is the best solution to just create the virtual switch like any other virtual machine, and give it the role of Virtual Switch, and then edit to add interfaces as needed?


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Jeremy Stretch

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Jan 26, 2018, 8:55:42 PM1/26/18
to Damien Garros, Matt Helm, NetBox
> Is the best solution to just create the virtual switch like any other virtual machine

Wait, what do you mean by "virtual switch?" If you're referring to a virtual chassis, that's a totally different concept from anything related to VMs.

On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 6:03 PM, Damien Garros <dga...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi matt 

As far as I can tell, you need to create the (at least 2) devices first
and later, you can group them into a Virtual Chassis
There is a button "Create a Virtual chassis" at the bottom of the device list

It was not clear for me either :) 

Damien
On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 1:04 PM Matt Helm <code.na...@gmail.com> wrote:
Perhaps I am misunderstanding / misusing the model, but it isn't clear to me how to add virtual switches.

Is the best solution to just create the virtual switch like any other virtual machine, and give it the role of Virtual Switch, and then edit to add interfaces as needed?


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Matt Helm

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Jan 30, 2018, 9:34:49 AM1/30/18
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I mean a vswitch inside vSphere. It might be the stock vswitch that comes with ESXi. Or, it might be NSX. Later, it might be Cumulus or other NOS - which would be a true VM.

Michael Jezierski

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Jan 31, 2018, 9:24:15 AM1/31/18
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I don't keep track of the interfaces on vSwitches in VMware. No need to, IMO. You have 4088 switchports on a cluster, so you really have to load it up to worry about usage.

In each VM I track in Netbox, I create an interface with the name of the vSwitch. For example, I have VLAN1, VLAN2 and DMZ as my vSwitches. For VM1 I use VLAN1 and DMZ so I create interfaces with those names, then assign the IP addresses that are on those interfaces.


On Friday, January 26, 2018 at 4:04:19 PM UTC-5, Matt Helm wrote:

Romain Gobert

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May 21, 2019, 11:39:51 AM5/21/19
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Hello, 

I have a similar question and i haven't find other discussion on this subject.

On VMware, from the physical side, that's not a problem. You have vmnic, the physical network port, connected to physical switch. This side, i use lag or not, it's all ok. 

On the virtual side, there is (at least) 2 cases. 
1/ vSwitch (or Distributed vSwitch) : The VM are linked to the network using this vSwitch, who are associated to a VLAN.
2/ VMkernel. These are the virtual interface used to manage IP address for different purpose. I use them for 2 cases, management access, and connection to network storage (iscsi). These are associated to vSwitch who made the link to the physical network. 

I've made a little diagram for better comprehension.

How can you manage vSwitch and VMkernel in netbox ?

Regards,
Romain

Le samedi 27 janvier 2018 02:55:42 UTC+1, Jeremy Stretch a écrit :
> Is the best solution to just create the virtual switch like any other virtual machine

Wait, what do you mean by "virtual switch?" If you're referring to a virtual chassis, that's a totally different concept from anything related to VMs.
On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 6:03 PM, Damien Garros <dga...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi matt 

As far as I can tell, you need to create the (at least 2) devices first
and later, you can group them into a Virtual Chassis
There is a button "Create a Virtual chassis" at the bottom of the device list

It was not clear for me either :) 

Damien
On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 1:04 PM Matt Helm <code.n...@gmail.com> wrote:
Perhaps I am misunderstanding / misusing the model, but it isn't clear to me how to add virtual switches.

Is the best solution to just create the virtual switch like any other virtual machine, and give it the role of Virtual Switch, and then edit to add interfaces as needed?


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2019-05-21_17h33_50.png

roy.vega...@gmail.com

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Oct 27, 2020, 5:17:36 AM10/27/20
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Hi, Romain

I too need to model VMWare vSwitches. Did you come up with a way of doing this?

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