Best way to obtain redundancy between 2 switches - HP E2910

[lowprofile]

Hi

I am looking for a solution on how to get some redundancy if 1 switch fails... (ex. power interruptions)

I have 2 HP E2910 with 10GbE stack module (if it does matter)

I got 2 uplink from ISP, 2 firewalls and now I would like a full redundant setup... Just missing the configuration model on how for the swithes. I am interested in an active/standby model.

When googeling, their is some different solutions. What is the best one with least efforts today? Any recommendations? 

Thanks in advance.

[Vince_Whirlwind]

Where is the routing being performed on this network? The firewall, or the switches?

[Burnwell]

Hi

I have no answear unfortunately, but am looking for a solution to the exact samt setup, as we are about to buy 2x 2920-48G with 10GbE stacking modules.

Our ISP provides 2 uplinks. One will be connected to a port in switch A, and the other in a port in switch B.

Both ports will be members of the "WAN" VLAN. ISP provides an active/passive connection, so I guess we have to setup some spanning tree to avoid loops...

 We _will_ do all routing in the switches, but what happens if the master unit dies?

I assume all routing is done in the master unit?

Best regards

[lowprofile]

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@Vince_Whirlwind wrote:

Where is the routing being performed on this network? The firewall, or the switches?

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The routing in my case is being performed on firewall (PFsense)

Network design:

UPLINK---> PFsense (FW) ----> Switch (E2910)----> Host/devices

[lowprofile]

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@Burnwell wrote:

Hi

I have no answear unfortunately, but am looking for a solution to the exact samt setup, as we are about to buy 2x 2920-48G with 10GbE stacking modules.

Our ISP provides 2 uplinks. One will be connected to a port in switch A, and the other in a port in switch B.

Both ports will be members of the "WAN" VLAN. ISP provides an active/passive connection, so I guess we have to setup some spanning tree to avoid loops...

 We _will_ do all routing in the switches, but what happens if the master unit dies?

I assume all routing is done in the master unit?

Best regards

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I know that E2920 support "real stacking" where some kind of redundancy trough RSTP is possible. Correct me if wrong.

[Vince_Whirlwind]

In that case, I would expect you would extend all your Layer-2 segments to the firewalls. The firewalls then run HSRP/similar either using gratuitous ARPs to tell the switches the MAC address of the router for each segment, or, the firewalls manage the impersonation of the virtual MAC address of the router for each segment.

The switches are inter-linked with all your Layer-2 segments existing on both.

Each host is redundantly patched to both switches

Therefore any outage affecting one firewall or one switch will not cause an interruption.

[lowprofile]

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@Vince_Whirlwind wrote:

In that case, I would expect you would extend all your Layer-2 segments to the firewalls. The firewalls then run HSRP/similar either using gratuitous ARPs to tell the switches the MAC address of the router for each segment, or, the firewalls manage the impersonation of the virtual MAC address of the router for each segment.

The switches are inter-linked with all your Layer-2 segments existing on both.

Each host is redundantly patched to both switches

Therefore any outage affecting one firewall or one switch will not cause an interruption.

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Awesome. Thanks for this info! I will let my Network Administrator look into it.

thanks a lot! :)