Help with Configuring HP2920's, stacking, two stacks, vlans and voip etc

[markm75]

Hopefully this is the right place for this question.. we have a total of 6 hp 2920 switches.... we have an old daisey chained set of gigabit switches for the existing network, where the wiring will need moved over.

For now i started out configuring the 2 member stack on the 2 switches.. i also updated the firmware, so now they have the newer GUI that shows the gauge for cpu usage etc.

To get things going i had a cat6 cable going from the bottom switch in our old stack of switches to one of the two new switches so i could connect and configure from anywhere.

I set up each switch as stacking enabled via the command line (didnt see a gui option).

First issue i ran into.. as soon as i hit enable stacking on the bottom of the 2 new switches and it rebooted, it brought down our existing network for some reason.. exclamation marks by the networking symbol on windows 10 etc.. not sure why?  Any thoughts there?

So i removed the cat 6 going to our switches and everything came back online.. obviously now the only way to configure these is directly from a laptop in the server room.

These switches just had one cable going from stacking module to the other.. i'm going to add another cable, which it appears for 2 switch stacks lets them become a ring, rather than chained.

For the other 4 switches ill stack them via a ring.

My other questions are vlan related.. unsure where to begin on that.. the 4 member stack will be servers + workstations mostly.. they are connected via dac modules for 20gbit throughput to the other 2 member stack.. as well as a 1 gb fiber connection going across to the other one for more redundancy.. those 2 switches will be poe ip office phones and misc equipment like routers, wifi etc. (not sure if i need to do anything with the dac modules, like trunk them for the 20bit or not)

Whats the best way to configure vlans here.. its my understanding there should be multiple vlans.... i've seen it mentioned to have a management vlan (meaning which devices exactly?) would this include servers? then a few others like Voip etc.. doesnt this mean that i must make sure that i'm plugging in only those vlan related items into certain ports.. and how does this work cross stacks.. do i have to recreate all the vlans on both ends, even if say voip doesnt exist on the 4 member stack, since its on the 2...

This is my first dive into anything this complex, so any suggestions would be great, or incite.

Thanks in advance

[parnassus]

Hi!

Just as a starter...first: have you already read the HP 2920 Switch Series stacking Technical white paper?

That's to understad which method of configuring the 2920 Stack you followed (Deterministinc versus Plug-and-Go).

Pretty strange what happened (STP?) when you uplinked one member of your old daisy chain to your new (still to be formed) HP 2920 Stack's member...probably you should have created first the 2920 Stack then uplinked one of its members to your old daisy chain of Switches and not the contrary (before the Stack had formed).

Regarding the trunking between two different Stacks (2 2920 members and 4 2920 members) you could easily aggregate 2 (or more, ports permitting) 10Gbps links together on each side (distributing those two links on both members of the 2 2920 members stack on one side - this side will be "balanced" from the 2 links aggregation's standpoint - and distributing the same links on two random members of the total 4 2920 members stack on the other side, this side will be "unbalanced" from the 2 links aggregation's standpoint) via DAC Cables.

VLAN: it depends on which VLANs you are going to define in which switches...trunks (uplinks) need to permit those VLANs to pass between uplinks' peers (that's valid also between your two separate 2/4 members stacks).

[markm75]

i have it set so the commander is not the first one that is turned on.. i've set priorities for commander and standby.

I have a new issue.. i got the 4 switch stack setup.. i had individual ips set on one or two of the 4 stack switch.. now for some reason, after joining them to the stack group, i cant even connect via the usb cable com port which was working fine before.. pressing enter twice doesnt take me in, just stays blank.. not sure if its because i had previoulsy given it its own ip or not?

Do the ips on the individual switches go away once the stack is set, such that if you type setup and change the ip on a stack member, that sets the ip for the whole stack.. no way to connect to individual switches at that point?

edit: so i guess only the commander ips are the live ones after becoming part of the stacks.. problem is.. i still cant connect to either via the web address, i even tried plugging the laptop into the commander switch, setting a similar manual ip then trying.

I fixed the uplink, but i need to get the dac trunking part configured.. nothing flows from stack set to stack set as of now.. i'm not sure i follow about distributing the dac links amongs the other members of the stack? I assume you mean virtually on this.. any examples of how i link stack to stack via the dacs?

Side note.. common knowledge but, the specific part here is the J9731A module.. i have one in one switch on stack01 (2 member stack) and the other in stack02 (4 member stack).. unsure if this module needs to be in the commander switch on each end or not?

Thanks 

[markm75]

So it would appear, if i disconnect the second dac cable from each module and leave only 1 in, then i can connect to web interfaces of either commander.. if i plug in the second they become unresponsive/dont ping

[parnassus]

Do both 2920's Stacks work OK when the uplink between them is down/disconnected? just to understand that both 2920's Stacks are OK.

IMHO you can create a Port Trunking (with load sharing method: Dynamic = LACP) on Stack "A" and on Stack "B", on both sides - for the Port Trunk created - assign two SFP+ interfaces (those you want to connect each others with a pair of DAC Cables) as member of each Port Trunk. Once done this configuration, physically connect the DAC Cables pairs between the two Aruba 2920 switches (on Stack "A" and on Stack "B") where those two J9731A Modules are installed...at that point you should end up with a 2 (10GbE) members' LACP Port Trunk between Stack "A" and "B"...that means, in your case, a 20Gbps logical redundant and load balanced link between your two Stacks.

[markm75]

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@parnassus wrote:

Do both 2920's Stacks work OK when the uplink between them is down/disconnected? just to understand that both 2920's Stacks are OK.

IMHO you can create a Port Trunking (with load sharing method: Dynamic = LACP) on Stack "A" and on Stack "B", on both sides - for the Port Trunk created - assign two SFP+ interfaces (those you want to connect each others with a pair of DAC Cables) as member of each Port Trunk. Once done this configuration, physically connect the DAC Cables pairs between the two Aruba 2920 switches (on Stack "A" and on Stack "B") where those two J9731A Modules are installed...at that point you should end up with a 2 (10GbE) members' LACP Port Trunk between Stack "A" and "B"...that means, in your case, a 20Gbps logical redundant and load balanced link between your two Stacks.

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They work fine as long as either none or only one dac connected.. i think the second cable causes broadcast storms.. so they need to be trunked first.. 

Issue i have now, is that i thought i read that i should have spanning tree enabled.. so i tried that.. i went and enabled spanning tree on the 2 switch stack A.. immediately after the reboot i cant connect to either stack now (only 1 dac between them).... and stack A in fact wont fully boot up (i dont think).. i get solid green lights across it.. not sure what i did wrong if anything... i ended up pulling the power on stack A and will re visit in the morning and see if i can at least get the commander to boot..

Was spannning tree a bad idea for some reason?

[markm75]

I connected a cable and can see the error associated with the solid green lights.. basically says bad code in flash, could not open image file.. flash memory needs reprogramming..

All i can think of is that i removed the update file from one of the two spots (primary, secondary), thinking this would speed boot up time, and i think it needs there to be an update firmware file, otherwise it cant boot and gets stuck on green?

If so, how do i remedy this? (dont think was related to spanning tree being toggled on, though it "greended" both of the two switches in this 2 switch stack)

[markm75]

I reuploaded the .swi firmware image by using hyper terminal after much digging and the do command on the cli.. it rebooted fine.. now doing the same to the other switch and i think it will be working again.

So its back to making sure Spanning Tree is set correctly (i guess turned off for uplink ports, which i need to figure out how).. and then to do the trunking of the dac's

[markm75]

I did confirm that "STP" is blocking the uplink port which sends traffic to / from the old set of switches.

[parnassus]

I'm starting to suspect, re-reading your last four posts, that you never expressly told that you performed backplane stacking respectively on your Aruba 2920 4-members and 2-members groups? aren't you?

I mean: are you using Stacking Modules and Stacking Cables within, respectively, on all your Aruba 2920 4-members and 2-members separated groups or what (just uplinking them with DACs)?