Before configuring the PowerEdge MX, review the Overview of SmartFabric Services for PowerEdge MX section in the Dell EMC PowerEdge MX Networking Deployment Guide.
Use the information in the sections below to configure and deploy SmartFabric Services using the OME-M console.
Create VLANs
For the deployment example topology used in this guide, VLANs 1611 through1616 are created for ESXi management, vMotion, and vSAN. The VM data network, VLANs 1617 and 1649 are created for the NSX-T Data Center. The following table provides details for each VLAN.
VLAN ID | VLAN name | Description | Network address | Gateway address |
1611 | ESXi_Mgmt | ESXi host in-band management | 172.16.11.0/24 | 172.16.11.254 |
1612 | vMotion | VM migration | 172.16.12.0/24 | 172.16.12.254 |
1613 | vSAN | Storage | 172.16.13.0/24 | 172.16.13.254 |
1614 | Web | VM data network | 172.16.14.0/24 | 172.16.14.254 |
1615 | App | VM data network | 172.16.15.0/24 | 172.16.15.254 |
1616 | DB | VM data network | 172.16.16.0/24 | 172.16.16.254 |
1617 | Host-Overlay | Host Overlay Traffic | 172.16.17.0/24 | 172.16.17.254 |
1649 | Edge-Overlay | Edge-VM network | 172.16.49.0/24 | 172.16.49.254 |
vCenter | N/A | N/A | N/A | 172.16.11.150 |
Create the SmartFabric
To create a SmartFabric using the OME-M console, follow the instructions in the Create the SmartFabric section of the Dell EMC PowerEdge MX Networking Deployment Guide.
For the deployment example shown in the Logical topology figure, two chassis are in an MCM group. For the Design Type, select 2x Dell EMC Networking MX9116n FSEs in different chassis for this scenario.
Dell Technologies recommends selecting the Include Fabric Management Address in LLDP messages option when creating the SmartFabric.
Create uplink
To create an Ethernet uplink from the MX9116n FSEs to the S5232F-ON leafs, see the Create Ethernet – No Spanning Tree uplink section of the Dell EMC PowerEdge MX Networking Deployment Guide.
After creating uplinks, the SmartFabric creates an uplink object and the status of the fabric turns green.
Create server template
A server template contains parameters that are extracted from a server and allows these parameters to be quickly applied to multiple compute sleds in the chassis. A server template contains all server settings for a specific deployment type including BIOS, iDRAC, RAID, NIC/CNA, and others. The template is captured from a reference server and can then be deployed to multiple servers simultaneously.
To create a server template, see the Create a server template section of the Dell EMC PowerEdge MX Networking Deployment Guide.
Associate network with server template
The templates that you created must be associated with the networks. In this scenario, VLANs 1611 through 1617 and 1649 are configured as tagged networks. This also applies to the settings of the other compute sleds when the templates are deployed.
To associate the networks with a template, see the Dell EMC PowerEdge MX Networking Deployment Guide.
Deploy server template
Deploy the server templates to apply the settings and parameters to the compute sleds. After a server template deployment, the interfaces on the switch are updated automatically. SmartFabric configures each interface with untagged and tagged VLANs along with associated QoS settings.
To deploy the server template, follow the instructions in the Deploy a server template section in the Dell EMC PowerEdge MX Networking Deployment Guide.