GbE2 Switch configuration

[Dik H]

Hi, I'm new to Blade systems and implenting a GbE2 switch with 4 blades. Actually I will need to split the network into 2 different VLans. So blade 1&2 will be in 1 subnet and should be physically connected to 1 specific external port. The other blades will be connected to another external port to a separate switch. How do we configure same in the GbE2 switch. How to map 1 external port to a specific blade/ port. Is it only done through VLans? Thx

[Víctor Cespón]

The ProLiant BL p-Class GbE2 Interconnect Switch provides support for a total of 255 IEEE 802.1Q Virtual Local Area
Networks (VLANs) for server grouping and isolation.

The GbE2 Interconnect Switches ship with a default configuration in which all ports are enabled and assigned a
default VLAN with a VLAN ID (VID) equal to 1.

http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00291270/c00291270.pdf

VLAN configuration interface can be seen on;

http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00291271/c00291271.pdf
page 26

[Dik H]

Hi
Thanks for feedback. Actually I'm running Blade C. Have been throught the guides and I believe VLAN is the solution..now my question is if I have 2 VLANs..Say VLAN1 for ports 1,2,21,22 and VLAN2 for ports 3,4,23,24 do I need to include 17/18 in both VLANs also?

[Víctor Cespón]

Ah, so it's a GbE2c. The manual is then:
http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00701541/c00701541.pdf

Ports 17 and 18 are the interconnects between both switches, and they come disabled by default. Enabling them allows one switch to access the NICs that are physically connected to the other switch.

[Dik H]

Hi, I've been through the guides and tried to configure the VLAN. Basically i've added VLAN2 with ports 2,3,11& 24. So I have Bl460 on port 2 and Bl480 with ports 3 & 11 which should be connected to uplink 24 on a separate switch. I also using a different IP subnet for this VLAN. However, i've been unable to ping the gateway from the BL460 (windows 2003) while the BL480 (FreeBSD 6.2) gives "no carrier" error. How can I go about this problem? Is there anything to do apart from enabling the 2nd VLAN. Moreover i have 2 Gb2Ec switch for redundancy. Pls advise how should I configure it for full redundancy with same configuration on both switches. I noticed that configuration on switch 1 only seems to work. Any configuration on switch 2 does not have any impact. Is ther anything to configure to enable redundancy on both switches.Thx

[B Cave]

"Ports 17 and 18 are the interconnects between both switches, and they come disabled by default. Enabling them allows one switch to access the NICs that are physically connected to the other switch."

I vaguely remember hearing something about network congestion potentially occuring, based on this setup. I need to enable these ports to allow the switches to speak to each, to allow a redundant configuration to work. On each blade, i have 2 onboard nic ports configured with bonding (teaming on windows). My bond config is active-passive, so if primary interface goes down, secondary (i.e. via the 2nd switch) will come up.

Will I need to use something to control rebroadcasting of traffic, like STP or similar if I enable these ports?