Adding VMANs to an Existing VLAN network

[Chris1]

We're running a network with a good deal of switches, we're L2/L3 pretty much all over the place, using basic vlans. But now we need to provide service to another provider and we're trying to figure out how to make it work, i've probably read through the vman docs 4-5 times but still keep getting lost maybe its the abreviations not sticking or something but i just keep getting lost.

We have

Sites - Other Sites - Core via L2 vlans currently some sites have customers hooked up on the switches on untagged vlan ports, from site to site we're always tagging...

So now what we want to do is be able to dump a give a port on our core to the other provider, and a port at each of our sites, that way we only have to truck 1 vman/vlan across our network of 60+ switches instead of lugging hundreds of their vlans across 1 at a time which will be a logistical nightmare.

Can we do this easily if so how, to operate vlan and vman on same network of switches and transit these vlans between our sites+core to their hardware+core transparently to us.

[Stephane_Grosj1]

Hi EtherMAN, this is really odd that you see Ethernet carriers using 0x8100 as the ethertype. This is not the IEEE standard. At the time Extreme introduced VMAN, and no standard existed, yes, several ethertype were around (0x9100 for Extreme if I remember correctly). Then IEEE made it a standard, and every vendor is using 0x88a8 for years.

You can have a VMAN and a VLAN with a similar ID, btw. The purpose of VMAN is to scale and become transparent to customers' VLAN configuration.

[EtherMAN]

one more thing you said needs to be addressed ... No you can not have a vlan and a vman with tag id 100.. all tag id's must be unique in each switch for each vman or vlan. For a bit of insight on why we run 0x8100 first is it seems to be the common ethertype for QnQ services for most carriers who are running carrier Ethernet services and if you ever need to have an NNI and hand off tagged Vmans to another vendor that is not Extreme then odds are they will request the 0x8100 as the ethertype. Any way your network your decision and in the end it is you skin on the hook not ours  ... Read up in the concepts guide ... drop this into your lab if you can..... and good luck on your endeavors

[andreas1]

No risk in doing that at all. We have been doing it for at least 8 years. And you can do it in production. Vmans and vlans is treated the same way over ISC if you are selling that function.

[Chris1]

We don't have any existing vmans so that's no issue with changing ethertypes

So enable jumbo, set the ethertype to 8100 (same as vlan I think)

then the vman and vlan id's will share the same numbering so if I have free vlan #100 I can use vman #100 tag the vman and vlans on the trunked ports

untag it on the port going to their equipment, and on their side it just looks like a bunch of clean vlans?

any risk I should worry about doing this on a live network, dont wanna crash out traffic or something

also how will this tie into our core which is mlag'd follow same process, and treat it like a normal vlan over the ISC?

[EtherMAN]

Need to have current switches and images that support vman's and vlans on same trunked interfaces so you can treat vmans and vlans the same. Need to change vman ethertype to 0x8100 on any switches before you create a vman on it. This ethertype seems to be more universal than the default Extreme uses of 0x88a8. This is very important as if you change the either type on a switch that has an active vman created using another ethertype other than 0x8100 you will have major link problems on the interfaces that the vman is on. Make sure jumbo is enabled on all ports that you will have a vman provisioned on. Untag your vman toward your carrier on both sides and tag it across your network. Easy as can be... Be very careful in verifying whither your switches can do vmans and vlans on same port if you are planning on combining vmans on you current transport ports... Good luck