MAD on 2920 for IRF and VSF pairs

[Evan Z]

I have searched and opened a case with HP but have not found the answer.

We will be upgrading to a pair of FlexFabric 5700 switches in IRF for server connections.  We plan on using a 2920 ProCurve switch for MAD BFD detection using the 1Gig management ports on the 5700s.  The 2920 will just be hosting iLO and other managment device connections and will be connected back to our core switch.

We currently have an 8212 switch running as the core and plan to upgrade to 2 5406R zl2 switches with VSF.

Can I also use the same 2920 for MAD (LACP) detection on the VSF stack?  Or would it be better to have MAD running elsewhere?  Most of our access layer switches are Aruba 2530s or older ProCurve models.  

The 5700s arrive this week and I have the 2920 free so we can fully test that config in the lab.  I won't be able to test with the 5406R zl2 switches since I need to put the 5700s where 1 of the 5406s is currently.

[parnassus]

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Evan Z wrote: Can I also use the same 2920 for MAD (LACP) detection on the VSF stack?

Sorry but MAD via BFD on IRF shouldn't require a third party device do be deployed (it should be deployed as direct and dedicated Switches inter-link). Isn't it?

I mean, since you have only a pair of HPE 5700 you - probably - don't need to save ports when implementing MAD BFD (you are going to daisy chaining them together with regard to BFD) and so you don't need to add an intermediate device (like when deploying MAD via LACP Port Trunks on VSF)...so you can just do MAD BFD directly between IRF Members.

If you want MAD BFD via an intermediate device it should be possible to use the same Aruba 2920 for both MAD BFD (to serve IRF) and MAD LLDP (to serve VSF).

Performing MAD LLDP instead requires that you use specifically a third party supported device like an Aruba 2920: in that case it requires only that you define a MAD dedicated VLAN Interface (with its VLAN Id and IP Address respectively equal and compatible with ones used on the VSF side) and configure a dedicated LACP Port Trunk (two ports should suffice: each one on Aruba 2920 should be uplinked to one port of each member of the VSF) to be tagged member of that MAD dedicated VLAN; this is the MAD mechanism configuration part (VSF MAD mechanism configuration part is somewhat specular plus the vsf command to activate the lldp-mad on IPv4 against the MAD dedicated VLAN Interface on the Aruba 2920 [*]).

Eventually, if you don't want to involve a third party MAD device specifically for VSF, you can use the OoBM way - as an alternative way to implement MAD method - between both 5400R zl2 Switches.

[*] See VSF Configuration Guide or relevant 5400R zl2 Manual's VSF dedicated Chapter.

[Evan Z]

I think I will lean towards using the OobM ports on both pairs for MAD detection, all connected to the 2920 switch.

I knew that was capable on the 5700s but am still learning about VRF on the 5406s.

[parnassus]

This link (it's from Aruba AirHeads Community), related to MAD OoBM deployment on Aruba 5400R zl2 VSF, would be interesting.