JF845A HP 4210-48G Switch IRF Stacking

[Paco_D]

Hello all..

We purchased  (3) of these guys with the intention of using them to support aggregated SAN traffic over multiple SANs.

The intention was to have them operate as a single logical unit that the SANs would connect to allowing for high availability and bandwidth aggregation.

I was able to complete the IRF configuration. Unfortunatley, because there is no MAD feature available in the command reference, I am unclear on how I am supposed to manage split IRF scenarios.

I figured that perhaps this was maybe an issue with the software. So I went to the support site for THIS SWITCH MODEL and what I find as the latest software is 5120.EI-4210G_R2208P01.

Ok so it lists both hardware platforms in the file and In the feature list of this software MAD is supported (Terrific!).

So I commence to update the boot file. Only when I upload the new application file, the switch fails and will not come up anymore. I am thinking that this application file may not be compatible with the switch.

JF845A HP 4210-48G Software Page: https://h10145.www1.hp.com/downloads/SoftwareReleases.aspx?ProductNumber=JF845A

Suffice it to say that I am less than pleased with the rampant inconsistency in the HP documentation pertaining what supports IRF, what features are supported/not supported etc..

I am hoping someone can detail definitivley what options I have here. This is the second time I was told by HP pre-sales that a switch supports IRF only to find that this is really not the case.

Appreciate any help.

Thanks.

[Paco_D]

Please move to E-Series section.. Apologies.

[Fred_Mancen_1]

Buddy, the 4210G switches does not support IRF feature, just IRF Lite, which means that the switches form a clustered-stack, not a really satck, managed by a single IP and console. In this scenario you'll see that the cluster shows a master and the slave switches, where you have to change the console view to the desired slave in order to configure it and save the config file.

The configuration files and the L2/L3 tables are not synchronized, as the stack does not support distributed link aggregation. The switch that superseeds this 4210G is the 5120G EI, that really supports the IRF feature using CX4 cables at the maximum number of 4 units in a stack.

HTH

[manuel.bitzi]

I created hundred of 4210G-IRF-Stacks in the last two years and it works great! But I never used MAD.

There is no BFD-MAD mentioned in the datasheet and the irf configration guide of the 4210G. 5120 EI and 4210G have the same software, but the 5120 has a more developed hardware. the 5120 EI supports MAD, but i've never used it.

If possible change your 4210G with 5120 EI (with two slots), because the 4210G is End of Sales sind automne. you can use the same modules and cables to irf stack it.

br

Manuel