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Interoperability: 5400R ZL2 and Cisco 4500-E

 
Joe_Bloe
Occasional Contributor

Interoperability: 5400R ZL2 and Cisco 4500-E

What is the general network interoperability of Cisco and HP switches? I am contemplating replacing some Cisco 4506-E switches in stages with HP 5400R/ZL2 gear. It looks like the budget costs will be too high to do it all in a single year.

($14,000 for a new supervisor 7A per 4500-E switch, just so I can maintain the same functional level of operation and product replacement support we have now with the end-of-life supervisor 6A?? Ridiculous! Save me HP Lifetime Warranty 2.0, you're my only hope!)

I currently use Cisco UC560 (also about to go end-of-life) VOIP phones with the voice VLAN, and a Cisco 5508 public wifi VLAN, but other than that, the network structure is not very complicated.

Typical small server room with desktop computer and POE phone endpoints.

Though I might need multiple spanning tree interoperability support. I have no idea if that's possible between HP and Cisco gear.

1 REPLY 1
Richard Litchfield
Respected Contributor

Re: Interoperability: 5400R ZL2 and Cisco 4500-E

In general, ProCurve/Cisco in a heterogeneous environment work pretty well together - that is what standards are for! There are many, many sites that have both running together. Make sure devices on each side of the connection are using the same standards (STP, VLANs, CDP/LLDP, routing, etc). A little bit of planning and testing goes a long way.

You must have this doc (free from HPE): 

https://hpepress.hpe.com/product/HP+Networking+and+Cisco+CLI+Reference+Guide+-+Version+3-PDF-15901

This one may be useful too.

http://networktest.com/hpiop/hpiopcookbook.pdf