Need a little help with LACP

[Zaber]

We could use some help on setting up our switches.

We have two HP J8697A, which we will call Switch 1 and Switch2. We have multiple servers each one we will just call    ServerX. Each server has at least four NICs. We would like to set things up as follows:
    ServerX NIC1 connects to port A1 on Switch1
    ServerX NIC2 connects to port A1 on Switch2
    ServerX NIC3 connects to port A2 on Switch1
    ServerX NIC4 connects to port A2 on Switch2

We would like to use Dynamic LACP to bond NIC1 and NIC2 on the default (untagged0 VLAN (1)
We would also like to use Dynamic LACP to bond NIC3 and NIC4 on a tagged VLAN (10)
If we need to we can set the ports we want on VLAN 10 to be untagged. Right now the ports are configured to use 10 if the packet is tagged to 1 if not.
Is this something we can do? I have been reading the manual and am starting to go cross eyed trying to figure out what we need to do.

Thank you
Zaber

[Chrisd131313]

Hi zaber,

To get the basic config setup you can use distributed trunking between the two 5400s.

Enable distributed-trunking and setup a keepalive VLAN...

create a trunk between both switches, lets call it trk1.

create a VLAN for the DT Keepalive, lets say VLAN#99

add one untagged port to the Keepalive VPN on each switch.

on switch1...

distributed-trunking trk1

vlan 99 ip address 192.168.254.1 255.255.255.252

distributed-trunking peer-keepalive vlan 99

distributed-trunking peer-keepalive destiantion 192.168.254.2

on switch2...

distributed-trunking trk1

vlan 99 ip address 192.168.254.2 255.255.255.252

distributed-trunking peer-keepalive vlan 99

distributed-trunking peer-keepalive destiantion 192.168.254.1

Connect a cable between the the two keepalive ports on switch1 and switch2. This will setup your basic dstributed-trunking config.

Now for the server configs...

on switch1...

trunk a1 trk3 dt-lacp

trunk a2 trk4 dt-lacp

on switch2...

trunk a1 trk3 dt-lacp

trunk a2 trk4 dt-lacp

the trunks have to be the same on each switch so Distributed Trunking will work correctly.

Now add the trunks you have created to the required VLAN(s) on both switches.

vlan 1 untagged trk3

vlan 10 tagged trk4 ("no vlan 1 untagged trk4" to remove the untagged trk4 from VLAN1).

That should get you up and running, let us know if you have any issues.

[Zaber]

Thank you, I will try this as soon as I can schedule some downtime.  Unfortunately these switches are the core of our network.

[Zaber]

I tried to do this over the weekend and I have a question.

Does the keepalive vlan have to be on a seperate trunk of is it on the same trunk that is used as the interconnect?

[Chrisd131313]

The Keepalive needs to be on a seperate layer3 link between the two switches. It is used to check that the other switch is up and available, look at the keepalive link as the heartbeat for the DTing.

A detailed overview of DTing can be found in the Switch Software Management and Config Guide.