CHR Vlans on ESXi

RouterOS Virtualization
1

We are replacing a 1072 with a CHR on ESXi 6.5 Free

We have a big need for VLans on this box. When configuring the ESXi port as Promiscuous and adding VLans to the Interface in RouterOS we have had mixed results. VLans facing our EPC Core for VPLS to LTE UE’s seemed to require “MAC address changes” to be Accepted as well as Promiscuous. The LTE VPLS started to work, but the router seemed to become unstable.

So, we are mow having an internal discussion on the best way to setup VLans on CHR and ESXi.

Option 1: Setting the Virtual Switch to Promiscuous and adding VLans to the Interface in CHR

Option 2: Adding Port Groups to the Virtual Switch with the required VLan ID, then adding this as a seperate interface to the CHR VM. The biggest problem with this is that you cannot add VLan’s on the fly, it requires a reboot of the CHR to see the new interface.

Thought? Suggestions?

Terry

2

The only way I got traffic across VPLS tunnels was to set the vSwitch to promiscuous mode anyway. Also had to change the MPLS MTU to 1478 on ESXi 6.7.

Before making these changes I was only able to ping, traceroute etc. Transferring large data would stall.

Also because of my own VLAN requirements I figured simplest is best and just configured port groups per VLAN.

All this traverses across 4 ESXi hosts, 2 CRS-125 switches, 3 CHR and RB3011 and CRS328 running SwOS and works well!

3

Hello,
I dont know if this thread has been answered. I had that challenge when i installed chr on Esxi 6.0.what i did was to enable “4095” to allow all the vlans in the esxi host as well as enabling promiscuous mode for the switch port group.My vlans are working well. The challenge i am having is that i cannot disable anything in the Gui but i can disable via the terminal.