HP and Alcatel Vlan/Trunking

[Stumpfl Markus]

Hello,

I'm currently using a HP 3400cl-24g as a core, and an Alcatel LS6248 as an edge switch.

I've created some Vlans on the core and the alcatel, using the same Vlan-IDs. The HP switch routes between these Vlans.

My setup expanded and now I've got "2 Alcatel LS6248 + 1 Alcatel LS6212P". Because of this network growth, I wanted to add a second GBit connection
from the Alcatel's to the HP's switch using trunking (for redundancy and load-balancing).

I configured and tried alot, but it just wont work :-(

I would appreciate any help or pointers to specific information!

Thanks in advance,
Stumpfl Markus

PS: if you need some info on the network or which configuration I tried, pls tell me.

[Stumpfl Markus]

btw.: the IOS of the alcatel switches seems to be like the cisco-ones :-)

[Joel Belizario]

Have you read the documentation for trunking on the 3400cl? It may give you some hints on doing what you need to achieve.

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software/6400-5300-4200-3400-MgmtCfg-Oct2006-59906050-Chap13.pdf

I can't say for the Alcatel, but on a lot of the HP switches LACP is turned on by default so maybe try setting up an LACP trunk from the HP side and see whether it auto-negotiates.

If that doesn't work then I guess investigate how to turn on LACP on those Alcatel ports that you want to complete the trunk.

Unfortunately those Alcatel manuals don't seem to be downloadable...

[Ben Dehner]

I'm not an expert at this, but I play one at work. Here's some random thoughts, I hope this doesn't sound too basic.

First, when setting up the trunk, make sure both sides are using the same trunking protocol. The standard nowadays is LACP, but some switches may default to ether channel or some other proprietary protcol.

Second, make sure VLAN tagging is properly enable on the trunk. On some switches, you need to insure that each port within the trunk has tagging enabled; on other switches, you need to enable tagging on the trunk as a whole, not the individual ports. I've seen it done both ways.

Also keep an eye out for spanning tree. It shouldn't affect anything, but you never know. For example, if there was a misconfigured trunk, spanning tree may have sensed a loop and blocked a port. Even if the misconfiguration was later corrected, the port might still be in a blocking state.

[Stumpfl Markus]

Thanks guys!

I just solved it; don't really know how though :-\
I just started all over again, disabling the second connection, enabling spanning tree (rstp) on both switches, enabled trunking with lacp (vlan's are preconfigured) and then I enabled the second connection again. And now it works; the lacp-partner seems "fine" now^^ (before, the switches couldn't find each other, lacp-whise).

thx again,
Stumpfl Markus

[Stumpfl Markus]

well, problem solved (for now^^)