HP PRocurve & Cisco Router

[Derek Holland]

We just purchased an HP Procurve 4108 Switch. It is connected to our Cisco 3640 router. The router is configured with 3 sub networks, A B & C. The previous switch was a Cisco and it was configured with three ports to connect the three sub networks. The command is "switchport access VLAN (A B or C)". The port connecting to the router was configured as "switchport mode trunk". I don't understand much about VLANS.

What commands are needed(on the procurve)to accomplish the same task. Is this the best way to connect three seperate networks to one router, which is connected to other sites via Frame?

Many thanks.

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

HP Procurve supports IEEE 802.1q VLAN tagging.

The manual at ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software/59692320.pdf gives detailed information on how to configure vlans and trunk ports.

The configuration in the manual is heavily gui-based but both the gui-based web and console interfaces appear sufficiently intuitive.

Look particular into chapter 6 of the manual i.e. "Configuring the Switch" which describes the steps for VLAN tagging and trunking etc.

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[sven verhaegen]

HI

VLAN definitions in aPROCURVE switch are a lot less complicated than on CISCO , in fact you need only to acces the menu-driven interface , different from the CISCO IOS no commands are needed , it is in fact easier to perform than to explaine , you should first define the vlan then simply go into port config and add the specic port to the VLAN created , further there is talk about truncking , take care because truncking isn't refering to the exact same thing on CISCO and PROCURVE , truncking on the procurve happens in the VLAN configuration menu and is usually used for thinhg slike load balancing and high speed conduits , the manual refered to in the above reply should help you on your way , the menu structure should be quite easy to understand

[Karl_9]

Hello,

As of this time, Hewlett Packard does not have a forum moderator for HP ProCurve Network products. If you are needing assistance with your ProCurve device you may call HP???s free Network support Monday-Friday 7am-6pm (Mountain) at (970) 635-1000 option 3.2. You may also contact HP ProCurve support via email at procurve@cscmail.lvld.hp.com

Thank you

[Ron Kinner]

You may also need to make a change on the router. Cisco likes to use ISL between their routers and switches so you may have to change the encapsulation to dot1q. See
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/l3sw/4908g_l3/ios_12/7w515d/config/vlan_cfg.htm#95738.

Ron

[Derek Holland]

All of the tips so far have been very helpful. Especially the one about ISL. We do use ISL so this is what I was looking for. Thanks for your tips and advice.

[Volker Borowski]

Hi Derek,

if this is the best way you can only say after profiling your datastreams.

Basicly if you compare three diffrent ports each connected to a switch with each being in it's own VLAN, you can gurantee that this connection will have the physically bandwidth of let's say 100MBit/sec. No more, but no less.

If you combine all on a trunk, it means depending on further configuration each VLAN would be able to utilize up to three times the bandwidth of one interface by using the trunk.

Now to have a real benefit, this makes sense only if you can configure an minimum guranteed bandwith for each VLAN. In this case you can achieve i.e. a minimum of 100MBit/sec and a maximum of 300Mbit/sec (in case the two other VLANS are concurently quiet).

If you can not configure these limits, it might be, that you can not guarantee the minimum bandwidth for a VLAN, so if one connection will eat 270MBit, the other two VLANs will suffer.

Hope this helps
Volker