linking 2 HP Procurve 5406zl switches

[coljr]

Hi,

I have two HP Procurve 5406zl switches with various vlans which I set up just by using port tagging. This is my first time using these hp switches and I have inherited this network so any advice would be appreciated :).

What I basically want to do is to have one switch as my main and one as my backup for network redundancy. Would my best way to do this be to trunk several ports between the 2 switches?

If so could anyone give me an idiots guide on the best way to do this?

Thanks

[Jaap Laaij]

Search for port trunking in the Management and Configuration guide

For example:
ProCurve(config)# trunk c4-c6 trk2 trunk

If you attach server to the 5406s than you should use NIC-teaming.
If you attach edge-switches with PCs attached to the 5406s you would also need VRRP to be able to keep offering a default gateway when one of the 5406s dies. For VRRP you need the premium license.
If you want to distribute vlans from the edge switches to the 5406s you can use MSTP.