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Chen_Tat_93126's avatar
Chen_Tat_93126
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Feb 12, 2011

Creating multiple VLANs

Hi guys! I'm new to f5 and recently, my customers have some requirements to migrate from a switch load balancer to f5 LTM.

 

 

However, the issue is that the switch load balancer have about 20 Vlans configured on it, and to my understanding, BIP-IP do not have the ability to create that much of VLANs.

 

 

 

The number of VLANs is that can be created is restricted to the number of ethernet ports I have on BIG-IP.

 

 

 

For example, if I have a LTM 1600 which has only 4 ethernet ports, the maximum VLAN that I can configure is only up to 4.

 

 

 

Am I correct about this??

 

 

 

 

basic
getting started
new to f5
  • Hamish's avatar
    Hamish
    Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
    Feb 12, 2011
    F5's do 802.1Q VLAN tagging no problem at all.

     

     

    On your switch (Assuming it's a cisco), setup a trunked interface (Either physical or etherchannel. I recommend a channel and use active LACP). In cisco world a channel is what a PC person would call teaming or link aggregation. Trunking in cisco world is 802.1Q VLAN tagging.

     

    On your F5 setup a trunk (Which is LACP based link aggregation). Then create tagged VLAN's on that trunk. You can have quite a few (In fact Im not even sure what the actual limit is. Both devices will do extended VLAN ID's. On the cisco you'll have to enable it. On the F5 it will do extended ID's by default.

     

     

    H
  • Hamish's avatar
    Hamish
    Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
    Feb 12, 2011
    Close. The tagged VLAN's on the F5 need to be created on the F5's trunk (aggregated interface)... Then you can just create selfip's on each of the F5 VLANs you've just created.

     

     

    It would be nice if F5 and cisco agreed on terminology... Even in ur office when the talk is between me (Primarily Unix/F5) and the other network guys (Primarily Cisco), we can go round & round for a bit with the same thing meaning different stuff between F5 & Cisco...

     

     

    H
  • Chen_Tat_93126's avatar
    Chen_Tat_93126
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Feb 12, 2011
    I see. Now I get it. Creation of vlans and vlan interfaces via self ip is to be done on the f5 trunk interface. then, we'll trunk over to the cisco switch and create vlan access ports on it. Trunking is via dot1q protocol.

     

     

    And yes. I totally agree with you. I'm a network guy, understanding f5 for me is a real pain sometimes. It's a bit confusing.

     

     

    Thanks for your help!