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Il 06/10/2015 18:00, Sjoerd Venema ha scritto:
> [...] I am quite new to using VLANs on my network.

unfortunately this can quickly became a _MAJOR_ problem in correctly
understanding/configuring PacketFence in VLAN-mode.

> So I have some questions. Let me begin by explaining the scenario. 
> [...OpenWRT...TL-WDR4200...TL-JetStream...]

as a starting point, please consider that:

- - your physical switch is _NOT_ officially supported by PacketFence (for
VLAN-enforcemente), as for:
http://www.packetfence.org/about/supported_switches_and_aps.html

- - OpenWRT, as for its "hostapd" wireless driver/engine, is supported
since July 2013 [1]. Anyway, lots of rough-edges can be encountered in
its configuration, based on the several factors (version of OpenWRT;
chipset used by wireless router; version of hostapd; etc.). You can get
an idea by yourself, just searching over the ML archives [2]

- - are you sure to have a WDR-4200? I don't see any reference about it on
the web. Did you mean WDR-4300?
Anyway, as it surely supports OpenWRT, consider that it's mostly sure
that the router has an embedded switch that _DO_ support VLANs [3], so...
you have another switch that you might be forced to deal with (depending
on your setup)


> [Server] <-- Proxmox Hypervisor [PacketFence] <-- KVM virtual machine
> CentOS6

So, as your PacketFence BOX is a Virtual Machine (managed by
ProxMox/KVM), you also have another "virtual-switch" (actually a
"bridge") between your physical network and the virtual world (the VMs).
This is another things that you should clearly understand, otherwise some
(other) problems might arise.


> Q. What happens to my network if the PacketFence server goes down?
> Does the network go down, now that PF is an integral part? Or partly?

As a general rule, if PF is introduced on a network, it will behaves as a
Network-Access-Control point. Hence... it will "control" everything. As
for this very issue, should the NAC fail... network-access won't be
granted anymore. This is a valid statement, regardless of the enforcement
mode (VLAN or Inline, or Hybrid as well).
The failing of a NAC can be addressed with several approaches. As for PF,
first of all with an High-Availability PF-deployment [4]


> Q. Should I add more than one (virtual) NIC to the VM?

As you can see on the image at page 5 of the Administration Guide [5], PF
(in VLAN-mode) need to be connected to several networks. Such "logical"
networks can be coupled with the PF-server network-interfaces in several
ways, based on the configuration of "trunk/VLAN-aware" network interfaces
(in Linux) and/or the possibility to bring such trunk from the
physical-hyphervisor to virtual-VMs trough virtual-switches.
In other_words/simple_terms: an "ifconfig" (or "ip link show") run within
the PF-box (real or virtual) needs to return an interface for each of the
needed network.


> Q. And this is my real question. Do I require multiple cables between 
> server and switch??? Or can all VLAN's go over the same cable?

Uhm... Short answer: _NO_. Long answer: please, again, investigate the
VLAN technologies. It's definitely something you should do ASAP, starting
right after the reading of this para>
> Thanks all!
> 
> 
> 
-
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> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________ PacketFence-users
> mailing list [email protected] 
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/packetfence-users
> 

graph :-)



> Sorry for the beginner questions. I try to follow the manual and
> search online, but it's just not detailed enough for a starter like
> me.

<my_personal_comment_here_mode=on>
With your question you're raising/mixing _LOTS_ of technologies and even
if they are related to PacketFence, their investigation is _really_ out
of scope for this mailing-list. Probably your questions might receive
better answers elsewhere (I'm not saying that people, here, is not enough
knowledged. It's the viceversa: it's not common, for PF-people, to spend
time on "basic" topics that should be "mastered" before entering the
PF-world). As an example, I think a better place for asking your
"general" questions could be the SuperUser community of the StackExchange
network, here [6]
</my>

Best luck and.... nice VLAN reading ;-)

Cheers,
DV


[1]
http://www.packetfence.org/news/2013/article/packetfence-now-supports-hostapd.html

[2]
https://www.google.it/search?q=openwrt+site%3Asourceforge.net%2Fp%2Fpacketfence%2Fmailman%2Fpacketfence-users%2F

[3] http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wdr4300#switch_ports_for_vlans

[4]
http://www.packetfence.org/downloads/PacketFence/doc/PacketFence_Clustering_Guide-5.4.0.pdf

[5]
http://www.packetfence.org/downloads/PacketFence/doc/PacketFence_Administration_Guide-5.4.0.pdf

[6] https://superuser.com/


- -- 
Damiano Verzulli
e-mail: [email protected]
- ---
possible?ok:while(!possible){open_mindedness++}
- ---
"Technical people tend to fall into two categories: Specialists
and Generalists. The Specialist learns more and more about a
narrower and narrower field, until he eventually, in the limit,
knows everything about nothing. The Generalist learns less and
less about a wider and wider field, until eventually he knows
nothing about everything." - William Stucke - AfrISPA
  http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/private/pubsoft/2007-December/001935.html
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