Aggregating 4x ProCurves

[aaronw_pcc]

Hello all, 

I've read about 15 different pdfs and twice as many posts but I just can't get anything to work so I'm hoping the community here can assist. 

I have 3x HP ProCurve v1910 48G switches. I just updated them all to the latest firmware and basically got them all set up almost identically to start with. These are all new-ish switches currently in my lab (not production yet). I'm setting them up as part of a big network re-do at work.

Goal: Have up to 4 gig-e interconnects between the switches so that bandwidth is allocated well across all of the ports. 

I have all 3 switches in my lab rack with the following physical connections:

Switch1 (we'll abbreviate to S1)

Ports 1-4 are grouped as BAGG-1, Dynamic LACP Enabled.

Ports 5-8 are grouped as BAGG-2, Dynamic LACP Enabled. 

Switch2 (S2), same.

Switch3 (S3), same.

Physical ethernet connections:

S1, Port 1 is connected to S2,Port 5

S1, Port 2 is connected to S2,Port 6

S1, Port 3 is connected to S2,Port 7

S1, Port 4 is connected to S2,Port 8

S2, Port 1 is connected to S3,Port 5

S2, Port 2 is connected to S3,Port 6

S2, Port 3 is connected to S3,Port 7

S2, Port 4 is connected to S3,Port 8

S3, Port 1 is connected to S1,Port 5

S3, Port 2 is connected to S1,Port 6

S3, Port 3 is connected to S1,Port 7

S3, Port 4 is connected to S1,Port 8

Traffic flows across all of the switches and any tests that I've been able to run all works successfully (plug in to any port on any switch and hit all of the other machines on any of the other ports on any of the switches). 

Here is my (at least one of) my problem:

When I connect to the web interface of the switches and look at the Link Aggregation page I get wierd status reports. 

For example:

+ Switch 1, Bridge Aggregation1 shows 0 Ports selected with 4 in Standby, saying "The port is not configured properly". 

however

- Switch 1, Bridge Aggregation2 shows all 4 ports SELECTED and working properly. 

* Switch 2, Bridge Aggregation 1shows 3 ports selected and 1 in standby.

+ Switch 2, Bridge Aggregation 2 (the other end of S1,BAGG1) also shows 0 ports selected and 4 in Standby, the same as S1,BAGG1.

- Switch 3, Bridge Aggregation 1 shows all 4 selected and working.

* Switch 3, Bridge Aggregation 2 shows 3 ports selected and 1 in standby, the same as the other end, S2,BAGG1. 

It almost seems like there aren't ethernet cords between the Standbys but there are and I've replaced them all with cables that I tested and work. 

Am I correct in assuming that all of the ports should be 'Selected' and none should be in 'Standby'. The 'Standby' ports say "The ports partner is not configured properly" but the full process I've gone through to configure it is the same on all of the ports and all of the switches so I'm not really sure how one port out of the group (as in S3,BAGG2) is somehow configured wrong?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks very much for any help. 

P.S. This thread has been moved from ProCurve / ProVision-Based to Web and Unmanaged. -HP Forum Moderator

[Vince-Whirlwind]

I'd start with your patch leads - on the connections that don't come up, take those patch leads and test them between two 1Gb devices and ensure the link comes up at 1Gb/s and not 100Mb/s.

[hansvb · Accepted solution]

I have had some troubles with the link-aggregation on these types of switches too

Since that moment i always create static link-aggregations on V1910 devices.

But if i look at your configuration, i suggest you make sure spanning-tree is enabled and configured

since ur config is in ring-topology

1 of the BAGG interfaces will be in blocking state

Regards,

Hans

[aaronw_pcc]

Just as a follow up I wanted to close out the thread: 

I recreated all of the trunks as Static but that didn't work either. It didn't actually change anything at all. They all appeared the same as they were before. 

What seems to have worked was actually moving to different ports. I was using ports 1-8 and I moved to using ports 17-24 with a Static config and that seems to be working well. 

I haven't been able to confirm that it is actually working as a single 4 gbe trunk as I don't have the infrastructure to test that right now but it seems to be working and passing traffic across all 3 switches. 

Thank you both for your assistance.