Recently, working on a customer environment, I discovered that their current Cisco 1000v implementation was not redundant. We quickly decided to convert the standalone setup to a HA-setup. This article shows how this can easily be done.
The current setup was a Cisco 1000v VSM (Virtual Supervisor Module) in L2 Control mode, but the same procedure can be applied to a Cisco 1000v in L3 Control mode.
Step 1. Change Cisco 1000v redundancy mode from standalone to HA (primary) on existing VSM. Confirm that role changed from standalone to primary.
1000V# system redundancy role primary
1000v# show system redundancy status
Redundancy role
---------------
administrative: primary
operational: primary
Redundancy mode
---------------
administrative: HA
operational: None
This supervisor (sup-1)
-----------------------
Redundancy state: Active
Supervisor state: Active
Internal state: Active with no standby
Other supervisor (sup-2)
------------------------
Redundancy state: Not present
Step 2. Retrieve existing domain ID from existing VSM & Admin-password from your local password database. Domain ID can be retrieved from current primary VSM by issuing the following command. The domain ID is printed in bold. Also check the port-groups the current VSM is using as you need them in deploying the Cisco 1000v OVA:
1000V# show svs domain SVS domain config: Domain id: 1 Control vlan: 898 Packet vlan: 899 L2/L3 Control mode: L2 L3 control interface: NA Status: Config push to VC successful.
Step 3. Install redundant VSM by deploying OVA (use same version as currently deployed VSM!) and choose deployment method secondary VSM. Only the relevant screenshots are shown below:
Step 4. After booting verify that the new deployed VSM is running as standby VSM:
1000v# show system redundancy status Redundancy role --------------- administrative: primary operational: primary Redundancy mode --------------- administrative: HA operational: HA This supervisor (sup-1) ----------------------- Redundancy state: Active Supervisor state: Active Internal state: Active with HA standby Other supervisor (sup-2) ------------------------ Redundancy state: Standby Supervisor state: HA standby Internal state: HA standby
And voila, the set-up is redundant now! It’s as easy as that.
Note: Don’t forget to configure the proper VMware DRS rules in order to separate the VSM’s.
Robert Verdam
