BMH connection to VM host via Fabric interconnect

[Qwr!]

We have working setup of ACI/UCS. Vm are working fine. Have a requirement to connect a BMH tentatively. The idea is connecting Vm host and BMH back to back via 10G nic. Going via ACI is an option. But thinking to attach BMH to FI. and extend same interface as additional NIC in VM. there is no change in a gateway, but VM will directly be communicated with new segment(VLAN) via add nic.

Have  couple of questions:

on FI, need to change port type, but not sure which one will work; Server Port or Uplink Port. May be Uplink Port ?

Upon acknowledgement, will the FIs will reload ?

3rd nic's IP can be setup as static on host but wondering it can be taken care under profile configurations

VMs already have two NIC via VMM so with this configuration going on add 3rd nic. Will create a new profile with 3rd nic. do change in profile will cause disruptions.

[RedNectar]

Hi @Qwr! ,

We have working setup of ACI/UCS. Vm are working fine. Have a requirement to connect a BMH tentatively. The idea is connecting Vm host and BMH back to back via 10G nic.

Ouch

Going via ACI is an option.

Indeed it is. A good one.

But thinking to attach BMH to FI. and extend same interface as additional NIC in VM. there is no change in a gateway, but VM will directly be communicated with new segment(VLAN) via add nic.

DON'T DO IT - 

Have  couple of questions:

on FI, need to change port type, but not sure which one will work; Server Port or Uplink Port. May be Uplink Port ?

DON'T DO IT

Upon acknowledgement, will the FIs will reload ?

No - but DON'T DO IT

3rd nic's IP can be setup as static on host but wondering it can be taken care under profile configurations

VMs already have two NIC via VMM so with this configuration going on add 3rd nic. Will create a new profile with 3rd nic. do change in profile will cause disruptions.

Honestly, if you have to connect a BMH and you can connect it to ACI, do that.

FIs are a totally different beast. ABSOLUTELY designed to NOT have servers directly attached unless via particular network cards (VICs) and then it's a process.

Please - try and connect the server via an ACI Interface, create an Interface Selector for that interface and an Access Port Policy Group (which is linked to an AAEP that is linked to a Domain that is linked to a VLAN pool etc)

GTG

[Steven Tardy]

I don't know what "BMH" is. I can only assume "Bare Metal Host" (as in non-ESXi OS, e.i. Windows or Linux OS).

If this is a Cisco UCS Server with a Cisco VIC, then simply connect it to the UCS Fabric Interconnects and create a UCS Service Profile.

If this is a non-Cisco UCS server, then you _could_ connect it to the UCS Fabric Interconnects by configuring the FI ports as [Appliance Port]. Not sure I'd recommend that, but can be done.

If you configure UCS Fabric Interconnect ports going to a server as "Uplink" ports you WILL have an outage. So don't do that. . . . Have seen it more than once.

As long as the BMH server is in the same VLAN as a VM (and pinned to the same FI), then traffic shouldn't leave the UCS Fabric Interconnect.

I honestly don't know how ACI comes into play here.

If ACI vSwitch on ESXi is encapsulating in VXLAN and not simply dumping VM traffic into a VLAN, then the VM might have to go "upstream" to come back to the BMH server.

You asked about adding a 3rd NIC to a server, I'm assuming this is adding a 3rd UCS vNIC to an existing UCS Service Profile. Yes, that would be disruptive as the server would have to be rebooted to reprogram the VIC with the 3rd vNIC, and the OS would require a reboot to see the new PCI device.

Hope that helps.

[Qwr!]

Hi, Steven,

Thank you for the inputs, a VMhost needs backdoor access to a legacy non-UCS window server.

will try to see if the existing UCS Service Profile can be replicated or create a new one. test profile will have a total of three vNICs and attach it to the specific VM.

> Hope that helps.
Indeed, Thank you :))