Connecting/Linking two HP ProCurve 5406zl (J8697A) - Port Trunking

[captain casual]

I have two HP Procurve 5406zl switches:

- Switch A - 96 ports (4 modules of 24)
- Switch B - 24 ports (1 module of 24)

Please refer to the attached Visio diagram. It will make more sense. My question is:

How do you connect VLAN H in the diagram?

Would you use port trunking?

If yes, how do you set it up? Do you use Trunk or LACP? Do you tagged or untagged the ports?

[captain casual]

Please find attached an updated Visio diagram with VLANS info

[EckerA]

Hi,
How are your switches connected (ports)?

You can use either, a manual trunk or a LACP trunk. I prefer the manual trunk.
If you just want to use the switchuplink to connect vlan h, it's ok to just use untagged ports in vlan h. But if you need intervlanrouting it's a little bit more complicated. then i would create all vlans on both switches and let just one switch do the routing. then i would tag the uplink ports between the switches in all vlans.
hth
alex

[captain casual]

Hi EckerA

Based from the diagram, i want to use (Switch A - Module D - Port 23 and 24) and switch B - Module A - Port 23 and 24, to connect the switches.

Routing is not done by the switch. I have a firewall doing the routing between the VLANS.

[captain casual]

Please find a MS Word version of the diagram.

[EckerA]

hi,
ok then:
on switch a

conf
trunk d23,d24 trk1 trunk
vlan ? //<--vlan h
untagged trk1
wr mem
exit
exit

on switch b

conf
trunk A23,a24 trk1 trunk
vlan ? //<--vlan h
untagged trk1
wr mem
exit
exit

with routing done by your fw you would need an uplink from every vlan to the fw.
hth
alex

[captain casual]

Thanks

I will try this on Saturday and let you know it goes.

[Pieter 't Hart]

port-trunking in procurve terms is "agregation", and is not the same as vlan-trunking in Cisco terms.

do you really have 11 different links (one for each vlan) to your firewall?

i suggest configuring the link between the two switches as "tagged" in all vlan's that need to pass from switch-B to switch-A.


and configure a single link (or trunk) to the firewall also as "tagged" in all vlans.
I expect in your firewall you also can configure "virtual-" or "sub-"interfaces.

you'll free up a lot of interfaces and don't need to add an extra port + cable for each new vlan that's added in the future.

[captain casual]

Hi Pieter 't Hart

Thanks for your input.

Only 5 VLANS are connected to the firewall.

What you said about freeing up ports makes sense though. However I didn't quite understand how you would set that up. To be honest, I've inherited this network and i'm still reading books and forums on how the switches work. Would you able to update the diagram i've attached? A picture is worth a thousand words :)

Much appreciated!

[Pieter 't Hart]

example in attached image.
Firewall config offcourse depends on model.

both switches connected by "trunk" and switch-A connected to firewall with a "trunk", for redundancy and bandwith aggregation.

regards,
Pieter

[captain casual]

I was wondering if anyone could tell if using two ports on each switch for the trunk is enough to link VLAN H?

[Pieter 't Hart]

only you can...

it totally depends on what nodes are connected on both sides of the trunk an how much bandwith they need to communicate with one-another.
nodes that need a lot of intercommunication better be put on the same switch (if possible).

if those two nodes need more than 1 Gbit bandwith, than 2 G may be a little short to supply all other communication.

this not only counts for hosts in
vlan-H but also for vlan I,J,K communicating with vlan-A,B,C,D etc
the bandwith of the trunk is shared for all vlan's that need to cross between switches.

if this is a new setup i would start with just two and monitor usage.
you can expand the trunk to 3 or 4 ports if necessary later.

so again only you know the communication-requirements in your environment.