VxRail 3.5 Deployment in VLAN without DHCP – Hyper Converged

Don’t Start without these –

Two 10GE  Ports connected to each Node from the 10ge Switch with proper SFPs connected  – Validation will not succeed without this.

With DHCP life can be more simpler when it comes to Vxrail  or Enable Ipv6 Multicast.

For Initial Configuration.

Required information to Start with –

• NTP Server IPs
• DNS Server IPs
• ESXi hostnames and IPpools for adding Additional Nodes in future.
• Hostnames/ips/Passwords for VCenter,PlatformServiceController,VxRail manager,Esxi,Vrealize log Insight
• IPpools/VLANs for vMotion,virtual SAN,VM networks.
• VRealize Logging – hostname/ip

• Changing Esxi Hosts Initial IP (Cannot have DHCP in my VLAN)
• Changing the Initial IP for VxRail Setup (Cannot have DHCP in my VLAN)
• Need DNS Servers (In my Case have Domain Controllers)
• Need NTP Servers (In my Case have Domain Controllers)

Front-

Back –

Configuring Mgmt Ports –

• Reboot Each hosts –
• press F2 Continiously.
• Enter Bios password – emcbios
• Enter BMC Lan Configuration
• Enter Static IPs
• Configure User/password

On – Vxrail 4.5  – BMC comes with Default DHCP IP 192.168.0.120

Username admin

Password admin

• Node down the DHCP EMC TAG Name on Each Node, (Need to Add A records in the DNS for vXRAIL Manager to Configure initially).

Get inside the DNS server you are going to use for initial Resolving –

EMCTAG-01 to Esxi-Manual-IP

for XRAIL manager to pick up the manual hosts.

Getting inside XRAIL Manager-

• Get inside Node 1 –with Display/Keyboard/Mouse – Disable DHCP – Change Esxi Host IP to Manual – Enter VLAN ID
• Login with root and Passw0rd!
• Do the same for all  Nodes for the complete configuration

Note : Only one VMnic will be active. leave as it is. Connect a 10g port to the switch.

Brocade in my case -example-

interface TenGigabitEthernet 3/0/9

switchport

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk allowed vlan add 100-200

switchport trunk tag native-vlan

spanning-tree shutdown

no shutdown

Now use a Jump Server (Connected to the  same switch with your convenience  ) and a Thick Vsphere Client.

• Login to the manual IP host
• Login with root and Passw0rd!

Enter VLAN id for VM Network and verify for Vkernel

Open Console of Vrealize manager and run below to change iP – Note (Take a Snapshot if possible. Things can’t be reverted easily)

systemctl status vmware-marvin

systemctl stop vmware-marvin

/opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_set_network eth0 STATICV4 <new_IP> <new_subnet mask> <new_gateway>

Run it and wait for the message . Reboot the esxi host with xrail manager.

My Domain Controllers IP  –

• AD001
• AD002

Checking which one is my NTP server –  PDC (My NTP)

netdom query fsmo

netdom query dc

Looks like AD001 is my NTP

Verified my XRAIL has access to NTP Servers and DNS Servers –

Now get inside XRAIL manager from Jump Server –

–

New XRAIL manager IP you specified –

username – administrator@vsphere.local

Password-use the xrail password for initial configuration.

• Now It will configure with the Internal DNS of Vcenter.
• you have to use the DNS of Vcenter from Jump Server in order to open Console and other things.
• Start using Hostnames not IPs