No Switchport on HP E3800 layer 3 switch

[duffman667]

So at the core of our main location someone put an HP MSR 20-20 router there a while back.  Obviously this router isn't meant to be a core by no means and I am trying to get rid of it.  Only problem is, my company is cheap and won't buy an actual core router for me.  We have a E3800 core switch behind this router that connects all of our Vlans at our main location.  Coming from a Cisco background I thought I could use that switch as the router, forgetting HP != Cisco, so there isn't a way to turn a switchport into a L3 port (easily). This router doesn't connect us to the internet, but instead to all of our Metro ethernet sites and the firewall, which has another router in front of it and goes to the internet.  I saw some work around where you create an SVI and untag a port into that Vlan and turn off STP on that port.   Needless to say that didn't do so hot.  So tell me, am I stuck with having to kiss our CEO's butt to get a bigger and better router?  Or can this actually be done with that switch and I am just overlooking something (highly possible).  I tried to attach a .vsd but it tells me the content doesn't match the file type, so if you would like to see it I can email it to you or something.  Thanks for any help guys.

[Vince-Whirlwind]

If you need a layer3 interface, why does it have to be physical? What's wrong with an SVI? Surely you can use them exactly the same?

I think you've got the right idea though - using the 3800 as your "core" switch is the way to go. Only thing is it might be better to use a stacked pair of them for the job.

[duffman667]

Vince, I don't think the interface has to be physical.  I am just used to the Cisco way where literally all you had to do was type "No Switchport" and boom, you had a l3 routing interface.  I created 2 SVI's, 4 and 5 and untagged ethernet 10 and 11 respectively.  I enabled BPDP-filtering since I couldn't seem to turn STP off on an individual port on this switch.  I assigned the correct IP's and subnet masks (copied directly from the current router).  I couldn't ping anything across the Metro Ethernet connection which was connected to Ethernet 10 and I couldn't ping the inside interface on my firewall, which was connected to Ethernet 11.  I could still ping all of the other devices on my other SVI's (phones, pc's, printers and servers).  I have a feeling I am doing something wrong, I am just not sure what.  I double checked all the routes.  I noticed the RIP setup is very limited on this switch, as in you can't determine the authentication type and so forth, so I had to create static routes but I ensured those were correct.  But still nothing came up and that shouldn't have affected the inside interface of my firewall.

As far as using 2 3800's and stacking them, God I would love that.  But I had to beg just to get the one 3800 to replace the old 2910 they had at the core when I started...Yes, a 2910 brance L3 switch as as core.  It made for interesting times :).

[Vince-Whirlwind]

Well, you shouldn't need any routes.

If your neighbouring device is on 10.1.1.1/29 then you create VLAN 4 SVI with 10.1.1.2/29, configure port 10 to be an "Access" port with VLAN4 "untagged", patch port 10 to its neighbour, get a link light, and the switch will see its neighbour.

It's very simple, so if it's not wokring, there will be a very simple answer.

Double-check all your design/doco information first to make sure you haven't got an IP address wrong.

[duffman667]

Thanks Vince.  I created the routes because nothing was showing as a locally connected neighbor.  I figure it is something simple that I am missing, I just wanted to double check that my thought process on this configuration is correct.   I'm going to try it again when I have longer than 20 minutes to configure it at 5a.m. :-).

[Vince-Whirlwind]

If you're swapping one device for another, and it's a live environment and you rolled back very quickly after not getting connectivity, bear in mind the ARP table on the remote end will be wrong until the old entry times out or somebody clears it. Or you might be breaking your own network when you remove the old router in terms of ARP or some other config you've left out.

[duffman667]

Thanks for all your help Vince, I just figured it out and it turns out I am an idiot lol.  When creating the SVI's and untagging the Ethernet ports I left port 10 and 11 tagged in Vlan 6 which is for our phone switches to plug into.  Obviously things won't work well in that setup.  I'm about 100% sure that is the problem at this point.  Once again thanks so much for your insight into this issue.