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stacking two 2824 switches

 
P. Overduin
Advisor

stacking two 2824 switches

We have just mounted 2 ProCorve 2824 switches to be used as a dedicated lan for a VMware vmotion network. They are separated bij apprx. 500 meters. In each of them is a mini Gbic LX with LC connectors. The fibre connection is working (e.g. there is light if we scheck the cable) But connected there is no link. It looks like the gbics are not working. The webinterface shows the gbics but claims "no link" Obviously I tryed to switch RX TX, but no cigar.
I am a little lost here. Could it be it is not possible to stack those 2824 switches through gbic's?? (Till now we worked with Cisco 3524 and 4912)

Regards,
Peter
4 REPLIES 4
P. Overduin
Advisor

Re: stacking two 2824 switches

Forgot to mention. All fc cables are single mode.
Les Ligetfalvy
Esteemed Contributor

Re: stacking two 2824 switches

What revision is the code? Are the GBICs HP or other? Are you using SMF jumpers to go with the SMF building fibre? Did you test for more than just light transmission?

Other than the above, it should work.
Andr├й Beck
Honored Contributor

Re: stacking two 2824 switches

Hi,

if you see light when testing the fibres, they are very likely not single mode but multi mode (seeing light through a single mode requires a really intense light source and very dark environment). LX doesn't fit well with multi mode cabling, except when using offset adaption patch cables.

BTW, you cannot stack 2824s in the real sense of the word, as they have no stacking port. You could of course connect them with an inter switch link and could call that stacking, but it breaks semantics (and even more so does the feature of managementwise clustering of several switches that HP calls stacking). Stacking is when you connect two or more switches with a special port/cable and they become *one* larger switch. Like a modular chassis/blade solution but with cables.

ISLing a bunch of ProCurves with tagged VLAN trunks and all is of course no problem and works exactly as good as on Ciscos.

BTW^2, *Never* look into the fibres if you are not absolutely sure there is no LASER transmitter at the far end. LX uses infrared LASER, you don't see it, but it punctures your retina anyway.
P. Overduin
Advisor

Re: stacking two 2824 switches

Thanks for the reply's.

I just found out there was/is a problem with the fiber connecting our 2 buildings.

I tried to connect the switches over several connections on one location and it seems to be working as expected (link and stack work fine).

We will fix the fc problem. I am sure now the switches will work fine. Andre is right, you should never look into a fiber. We didn't but tried it with a laserpen. It is a rude but effective methode. If you are in a dark environment you can see the light without looking directly into the fiber. The only (in fact our) problem is it is limited to a certain distance probably due to the wavelenght?

Again thanks for the reply's I will send in the troops to check the fibercable.