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Re: How to install Local Connect Module ?

 
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Horly
Occasional Contributor

How to install Local Connect Module ?

Hi All, 

We have a pair of HP 5500 s linked by only 1 IRF cable. 
To remove that SPOF , we intend to add another LCM on each member and link them with a second IRF cable. 
Is downtime need for the installation of the LCM ? 
Any pointers to articles or KB related to the above would be great help. 

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parnassus
Honored Contributor
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Re: How to install Local Connect Module ?

If you're referring to IRF supporting Interface Cards (FRUs) for HPE 5500 HI Switch series like:

  • HP 5500 2 x 10 Gbps CX4 Copper Ports Local Connect Module LSPM1CX2P (JD360B)
  • HP 5500 2 x 1/10 Gbps SFP/SFP+ Fiber Ports Module LSPM2SP2P (JD368B)
  • HP 5500 2 x 10 Gbps XFP Fiber Ports Module LSPM1XP2P (JD359B)
  • HP 5500 1 x 10 Gbps XFP Fiber Port Module LSPM1XP1P (JD361B)
  • HP 5500 2 x 1/10GBase-T Ethernet Ports Module LSPM1XGT2P (JG535A)

these one (among others) are, AFAIK, Hot Swappable.

Clearly there are very specific IRF Port binding restrictions depending on the exact Switch model (SKU) for which the IRF depolyment is planned/was realized.


@Horly wrote:

Hi All, 

We have a pair of HP 5500 s linked by only 1 IRF cable. 
To remove that SPOF , we intend to add another LCM on each member and link them with a second IRF cable. 
Is downtime need for the installation of the LCM ? 
Any pointers to articles or KB related to the above would be great help. 


It seems you have one logical IRF Port bound to just one physical port, this on each IRF Member.

If true, it's important to know which physical port you have bounded to the logical IRF Port (as example: one front panel SFP+ port or one port on the Interface Card on Slot 1?). In any case it's always better to bound more than one physical port (so using two cables, as you write) per each logical IRF Port (adding resiliency to the IRF Link) remembering that one particular restriction valid for some (not all) HPE 5500 HI (supposing it is an HI) is that physical ports belonging to the same Interface Card Module can only be bound to the same Logical IRF Port...for other HPE 5500 HI that restriction is not valid and the requirement is that SFP+ ports on the front panel and ports belonging to Interface Card Modules can be bound to any Logical IRF Port...so it's really a matter of knowing which 5500 HI (or EI) Switch you are referring to and knowing what are your actual IRF Link details (see, as example, outputs of CLI Commands on the IRF Stack: display irf topology, display irf config and display irf).


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Horly
Occasional Contributor

Re: How to install Local Connect Module ?

Dear Parnassus, 

Thank you for your valuable input. 

The SKU for the LCM in this case is the JD360B, which means its hot pluggable. (horray!)  I supposed the IRF cable , JD365A (CX4 3m cable) is also hot pluggable as well ? 

As for the exact switch model,  its a pair of HP A5500 EI.  But since we are using another pair of LCMs for the 2nd physical IRF connection, we will need to create an second logical IRF connection right ? 

Actual IRF configuration : 

<HP>display irf topology
                           Topology Info
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
               IRF-Port1                IRF-Port2
 Switch    Link       neighbor      Link       neighbor    Belong To
 2         DIS        --            UP         1           7848-59a2-4e2b
 1         UP         2             DIS        --          7848-59a2-4e2b 

it seems that IRF port 1 on member 1 is connected to IRF Port 2 on member 2. Is that unusual ? 

<HP>display irf config
 MemberID NewID    IRF-Port1                     IRF-Port2
  1       1        Ten-GigabitEthernet1/1/2      disable
  2       2        disable                       Ten-GigabitEthernet2/1/1
<HP>display irf
Switch  Role   Priority  CPU-Mac         Description
 *+1   Master  32        7848-59a2-4e2b  -----
   2   Slave   1         7848-59a2-5f2b  -----
--------------------------------------------------

 * indicates the device is the master.
 + indicates the device through which the user logs in.

 The Bridge MAC of the IRF is: 7848-59a2-4e18
 Auto upgrade                : yes
 Mac persistent              : 6 min
 Domain ID                   : 0

Do you know of the KB on the creation of the new IRF port and link ? 

Many thanks in advance. 

parnassus
Honored Contributor

Re: How to install Local Connect Module ?

Horly wrote: The SKU for the LCM in this case is the JD360B, which means its hot pluggable. (horray!)  I supposed the IRF cable , JD365A (CX4 3m cable) is also hot pluggable as well ?

Well the hot connection of the CX4 cable shouldn't be a problem (this at Hardware level): the question could be instead if the Logical IRF Port should be shutted down before adding (binding) another physical port to it...but, AFAIK, adding more physical ports to an existing Logical IRF Port is a task that does not affect the ongoing traffic on that Logical IRF Port...this to say that, from the Software perspective, the whole addition can be done online without disruption.

The most updated HP 5500 EI & SI IRF Configuration Guide was published back in 2015 and can be found here.

Please note the specified IRF Link Redudancy and IRF Port binding restrictions:

IRF link redundancy
 
The switch supports up to two physical ports for an IRF port, and these two ports must be located on the same interface card.
 

IRF port binding restrictions

  1. Facing the rear panel, make sure the physical ports bound to Logical IRF Port 1 is on the left of the physical ports bound to Logical IRF Port 2.
  2. Physical ports of an Logical IRF Port must be on the same Interface Card.

Those two latest sentences basically mean that (as I read them), respectively:

  1. Physical port bound to Logical IRF Port 1 defined on IRF Member 1 needs to be on the left of the Physical Port bound to Logical IRF Port 2 defined on IRF Member 2 (which, if I read your actual IRF configuration's output correctly, is the contrary of what was setup on your IRF) so Physical Port 1/1/1 should be connected to Physical Port 2/1/2 (read: Physical Port n/m/p means n=Switch member, m=slot, p=port); thus considering that each JD360B Interface Card owns two ports, this also would mean that adding a second physical port to each Logical IRF Port need to be done between 2/1/1 and 1/1/2. Clearly this should be valid considering that Logical IRF Port 1 is binded to two ports, Physical Ports 1/1/1 and 1/1/2, and Logical IRF Port 2 is binded to two ports, Physical Ports 2/1/1 and 2/1/2. Note the Slot=1 on both IRF Members's physical ports numbering, just one 2-Ports Interface Card is used (there isn't 1/2/p or 2/2/p). [*]
  2. Logical IRF Ports should be binded to Physical Ports belonging to the same Interface Cards (as wrote above): this seems to exclude that you can distribute Physical Ports between Interface Cards - another method to avoid SPoF at Interface Cards level by using differents Interface Cards - on the same IRF Member (so no new JD360B is really necessary for the purpose).

At the end the IRF configuration should be like:

MemberID NewID    IRF-Port1                     IRF-Port2
 1        1        Ten-GigabitEthernet1/1/1      disable
                   Ten-GigabitEthernet1/1/2
 2        2        disable                       Ten-GigabitEthernet2/1/1
                                                 Ten-GigabitEthernet2/1/2

That's a Daisy Chain IRF Topology with Logical IRF Ports bounds to multiple (two, per Switch) Physical Ports to add resiliency and load balancing to the IRF link.

As a starting point see this HP Support Information (JD368B was used in the example).

[*] I hope that HPE doesn't mean that IRF Port 1 of IRF Member 1 should use Physical Ports of Interface Cards installed on Slot 1 (Left of Slot 2) and IRF Port 2 of IRF Member 2 should use Physical Ports of Interface Card installed on Slot 2 (right of Slot 1)...


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