Single NIC with Non VLAN-aware Switch

In this best practice guide for “non VLAN-aware” switch, also known as “dummy” switch, we will introduce Harvester VLAN network and external switch configuration for common scenario.

Architecture

Hardware:

  • Three Harvester servers with only one single port network card.
  • One or more “non VLAN-aware” switch(es).

Network Specification:

  • The host and the VM networks are in the same subnet.

Cabling:

  • The Harvester servers are connected to the switch in a port from 1 to 3.

The following diagram illustrates the cabling used for this guide:

non-vlan-aware-case.png

External Switch Configuration

Typically, a “non VLAN-aware” switch cannot be configured.

Create a VLAN Network in Harvester

You can create a new VLAN network in the Advanced > Networks page, and click the Create button.

Specify the name and VLAN ID that you want to create for the VLAN network (You can specify the same VLAN ID in different namespaces if you have Rancher multi-tenancy configured).

create-vlan-network.png

Connect a VM to the subnet of the Harvester hosts

The “non VLAN-aware” switch will only send out untagged network traffic to the subnet of the Harvester hosts. In Harvester, the untagged traffic is received in VLAN 1.

If you need a VM to connect to the subnet of the Harvester hosts, you have to create a VLAN Network in Harvester with VLAN ID 1.

non-vlan-aware-vlan1.png

Please refer to this page for additional information on Harvester Networking.

Single NIC with Non VLAN-aware Switch - 图4note

If you create a VLAN Network different from 1, the connection between VMs in different nodes will fail.