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Equinix Metal Guide: VLAN Management

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In Equinix Metal, users can provision their own private VLANs to segregate traffic. VLANs can either be assigned to a bond (all interfaces for a server in bonded mode) or specifically to a single interface in unbonded mode. The same VLAN (currently) cannot be assigned to more than one interface in an unbonded configuration. For this reason unbonded mode is not recommended for environments that need NIC/switch-level redundant availability.

Creating a VLAN

To create a VLAN, login to the Equinix Console and click on IPs & Networks and choose Layer 2 from the list.

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Then click Add VLAN.

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Then choose a facility and then give the VLAN a friendly name. The VLAN ID is created upon completion, so just a friendly name will suffice.

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This will create the VLAN.

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Note that this does not provision a subnet or IP range--you must decide upon this yourself as you assign networking to hosts.

Add a VLAN to a Equinix Metal Server

Once a VLAN has been created, you can add it to a server. This can happen upon network mode conversion or at any time once that server is in either Layer 2 mode or Hybrid mode.

In the Equinix Console, choose Servers then choose a server. Click on the Network panel.

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Scroll down to Layer 2 and choose Add new VLAN.

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Choose an interface and then choose a VLAN. This will currently only show VLANs that have not yet been assigned to any interface on that host.

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Click Add.

Adding the VLAN to ESXi

Virtual Standard Switch

Once you have added a VLAN, login into the vSphere Client. In Hosts & Clusters, click on a host and then choose Configure > Virtual Switches.

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Next, find the vSwitch and click Add Networking.

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Choose Virtual Machine Port Group for a Standard Switch and click Next.

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Name the network and for VLAN ID, if it is the only VLAN assigned AND it is not in Hybrid mode then no VLAN ID is needed. Otherwise, add the VLAN ID.

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Complete the wizard.

Virtual Distributed Standard Switch

Once you have added a VLAN, login into the vSphere Client. In Networking, right-click on the desired VDS and choose Distributed Port Group > New Distributed Port Group.

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Give the port group a name.

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Configure the settings as needed, defaults are usually fine. Choose VLAN and then the correct VLAN ID in the VLAN ID box.

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Pure Storage VLAN Connectivity Requirements

Depending on the integration you plan to use there are varying requirements for connectivity. Note that you can choose one or all of these options.

Virtual Volumes

If you are using Virtual Volumes (vVols) the following connections are required:

  1. All iSCSI VLANs for the desired FlashArray must be connected to the interfaces of the ESXi hosts consuming the storage. It is highly advised to not route iSCSI so it is preferable that the VLANs be directly attached.
  2. The management VLAN should be connected to the vCenter VM AND the ESXi compute. This connectivity does not need to be direct, it can be accessible via routing. Note that individual VLANs cannot natively route to one another--you must configure software-based routing between the VLANs.

VMFS

If you are using VMFS, the only requirement is below:

  1. All iSCSI VLANs for the desired FlashArray must be connected to the interfaces of the ESXi hosts consuming the storage. It is highly advised to not route iSCSI so the VLANs should be directly attached.

Management Integrations

If you plan to use integrations like the vSphere Plugin for others, the VM or appliance hosting that plugin must have direct or routed connectivity to the management VLAN of the FlashArray.

  1. vSphere Plugin--management VLAN access from the vCenter appliance
  2. Storage Replication Adapter--management VLAN access from the SRM server(s). The SRM server must have management access to both the source and target FlashArrays.
  3. vRealize Orchestrator Plugin--management VLAN access from the vRO appliance(s)
  4. vRealize Operations Manager Management Pack--management VLAN access from the vROps appliance(s)