Need help setting up RIP for first time

[Corey123]

I have HP 2920 and 3500 switches that are the routing switches at each site.  Currently we use Static Routes to route traffic to each of our other sites.  The static routes have been working fine but when our primary WAN link goes down (not often) I need to manually configure new Static Routes on several switches...then when the link comes back kup I need to update the links again.  This works but takes time and may cause the users to be down for up to an hour.  Also, when the connection goes down, the Interface is still up but the connectivity is lost.

I am guessing that I can setup a secondary static route or use RIP to automate this process.  Can you offer advice to help me impliment RIP or secondary routes?

For RIP if I turned it on I wasn't sure if...

- Will I need to remove the static Routes

- Will there be a chance of downtime if enabled...until fully configured

- Will I need to manually create the secondary routes for it to use?

Our primary link is connected to the HP Switch.  The secondary link is connected to our firewall which is the default route on the HP Switch (for all other/unknown traffic)

I tried to talk to HP about this a couple of times and each time they say they will call me back but they never do.  I tried to contact a local partner/vendor...they all sell and support HP Switches but when it comes down to this type of thing they all say that they know Cisco and are not certain how HP switches work exactly...frustrating.

Thank you and I appreciate any feedback that I can get.

[HP-Browniee]

Hello

Normally i would sugest to configure OSPF, but i don't think those 2920 switches support that.

Here is a doc where they describe how to configure RIP: http://www.hp.com/rnd/support/config_examples/5300xl_rip_routing.pdf

To answer your questions:

RIP and static routes run simultaniously, so configuring RIP wil not have any impact. Static routes have an lower cost then RIP so the switches will not use the RIP configuration, until the static routes are deleted.

So i sugests that u configure RIP on the switches, check if all the necessary routes are discovered by RIP..

When everything seems good, u can delete the static routes, without any network impact, ( mayby few seconds for calculating new routes)

Be carefull though, you will probably have static routes to other destinations, that don't use RIP,  So don't delete those routes!!

Kind regads

[parnassus]

What's about trying to see (if) Floating Static Routes can be used in your scenario and with involved Switches?

Your purpose seems quite similar to the one discussed here (there the OP was advised to use Floating Static Routes to overcome its problems but he didn't report back) even if you don't have MPLS or Site-to-Site Backup VPN requirements as him. Hope not to be completely wrong.