Help needed with simple network redundancy with 4 HP VC Flex/10 & 2 enclosures.

[Verypsb]

Could someone help me with configuring the HP VC Flex-10Gb Ethernet Module in the following setup? ( http://www.fun4me.nl/HP/Switching.pdf ) We have 2 C7000 blade enclosures with 2 HP VC Flex-10Gb Ethernet Module. I created a single VC domain which contains the 4 HP VC Flex-10Gb Ethernet Modules. We have 4 HP 2910 switches, each is connected with a CX4 10Gb module to a HP VC Flex-10Gb Ethernet Module. Each pair of HP 2910 switches are stacked by a CX4 link (Is this useful?) We have several vlans. What is the best way to configure the HP VC Flex modules? I would like to have all links active with all vlans going through the VC Flex 10 modules. Some blades need to connect to 1 VLAN, some blades need to connect to all VLANs. I have connected RACK 1, VC BAY 1 to RACK 2, VC BAY 1 on port X2 and RACK 1, VC BAY 2 to RACK 2, VC BAY 2 on port X2 . (Should be multiple networks, VLAN) I have connected RACK 1, VC BAY 1 to RACK 1, Switch 1 on CX4 port, and RACK 1, VC BAY 2 to Switch 2 on CX4 port. (Multiple networks, VLAN) I have connected RACK 2, VC BAY 1 to RACK 2, Switch 3 on CX4 port, and RACK 2, VC BAY 2 to Switch 4 on CX4 port. (Multiple networks, VLAN) In this configuration there's no traffic from the switches in RACK A to the switches in RACK B, in other words, there's no traffic going through the fiber links on port X2. Looking at the picture from the url above the red and green connections should pass all VLANs, and it should be possible to go from switch 1 in rack a to switch 3 in rack b, using the CX4 shared uplinks and the shared uplinks between the VC Flex modules. How should I configure the VC Flex modules to accomplish this? [Updated on 10/11/2009 2:21 AM]

[Neal Bowman]

Try moving your connections from module 1 port 8 to port 6 on each of the chassis. Ports 7 & 8 are reserved for internal stacking links, so it looks like you have an invalid setup. The ports on module 2 in each chassis should be fine, but you may want to move those if you do not get the expected results.

[Verypsb]

I already moved the connections to port X2 (and later to X6), as you can see in original post above. I appreciate the effort, though.

[Verypsb]

Some more info... (1) Switch A <-CX4, VLAN TRUNK-> (2) Enclosure A <-STACKED LINK, SFP+ 10Gb-> (3) Enclosure B <-CX4, VLAN TRUNK-> (4) Switch B I can get traffic from Switch A to Enclosure B, I can get traffic from Switch B to Enclosure A, I can get traffic from Enclosure A to Enclosure B and vice versa BUT I can't get traffic from Switch A to Switch B and vice versa.

[Neal Bowman]

Are your 2910 switches connected in any way? Trunked on the back-end? VC is not a switch and cannot route traffic.

[Verypsb]

No, the 2910 aren't connected. HP (pre-sales) told us that it wouldn't be necessary, that this could be done by connecting the VC Flex/10. [Updated on 10/14/2009 12:55 AM]

[Adrian Clint]

Do I assume you have one Vnet/SUS with all 4 ports in this Vnet? "Each pair of HP 2910 switches are stacked by a CX4 link (Is this useful?) " well its only usefullif they can be configured as a single virtual switch - otherwise no - not for what you want to do. You cant get an active port trunk of more than 10Gb unless both SFPs are in the same VC module and connected to a single switch or a virtual switch. So you can never get 40GB bandwidth out of the enclosures in a single trunk. What you can do... Create two Vnets - "left" and "right". Have a SUS of both VC1 uplinks and a SUS of both VC2 uplinks. Connect left to the VC1 uplinks and right to the VC2 uplinks. Give all NIC functions two NICs one in each of left and right. Configure half the servers to prefer to use left as the primary NIC and half as right as the primry NIC. This will get you 20Gb active and used- the other 2x 10Gb will be standby connections in case the others fail.

[Verypsb]

Jus received confirmation from HP support that the stacked links can't be used to pass through traffic. They are only to create a VC domain. Nothing more, nothing less. We'll need to stack/link the HP PC 2910 to create a fully switched network.