Blade Switch Management

[thomas.chen]

I am deploying HP BladeSystem C Class with Cisco 3020 Ethernet blade switches connecting to Catalyst 6500 at the aggregation layer. What are my best options for managing layer 2, VLANs, etc, across the Cat6K and 3020 switches?

[kcoley]

Thomas,

The easiest way to configure those is to create and Etherchannel for the uplinks. Since there are two switches in the HP c-Class Blade Cabinet, servers have two possible paths. NIC teaming on those servers allows you to perform Active/Standby connections to both switches. The question becomes, how to connect the switches to the upstream aggregation layer to insure best fit. You have two options. For maximum bandwidth, you can connect all the uplinks from one CBS3020 to one Aggregation switch, and connect the other CBS3020 to the other Aggregation switch. This builds what is refered to as the Upside Down "U" configuration. The other option is the split the uplinks in two and connect half of the uplinks to each Aggregation switch. This forms a "V" configuration. The "V" configuration gives better resilency, but half of the uplink capacity sits idle due to STP. So unless you have multiple VLANs on your servers, the "U" configuration is easier to use and provides better bandwidth. Configuring the CBS3020 as VTP clients allow them to learn the VLANs from the Aggregation layer. However, that may cause the CBS3020s to learn more VLANs than they need. So typically, users leave the CBS3020s in VTP transparent mode. And use the "switchport trunk allow vlan xxx, yyy, zzz" command to prune off un-needed vlans.

[scottpilkinton]

Assuming you have two switches in each chassis:

Uplink first chassis switch to Cat6k-A and uplink the second chassic switch to Cat6k-B and configure link state failover on the switches. Each blade server is then configured for nic teaming. I have attached a config for what would be your first switch in the chassis.

Scott

www.xpresslearn.com

[mslavin]

Hi Scott,

The attached config example is missing an important global command. The global command "link state track 1" needs to be added to make link state tracking operational in this example. To verify if link state tracking is indeed ready and operational, use the command "show link state group detail"

If you are missing the global command, the "Status" for the link state group will be "Up", but it will still be "Disabled" (per the "show link state group detail" command) until you add the global command

Thanks, Matt

[scottpilkinton]

Matt,

Great catch, thank you!

Switch#show link state group detail

Link State Group: 1 Status: Disabled, Up

Upstream Interfaces : Po1(Up)

Downstream Interfaces : Gi0/1(Up) Gi0/2(Up) Gi0/3(Up) Gi0/4(Up) Gi0/5(Up)

Gi0/6(Up) Gi0/7(Up) Gi0/8(Up) Gi0/9(Up) Gi0/10(Up)

Gi0/11(Up) Gi0/12(Up) Gi0/13(Dwn)

Link State Group: 2 Status: Disabled, Down

Upstream Interfaces :

Downstream Interfaces :

(Up):Interface up (Dwn):Interface Down (Dis):Interface disabled

Switch#conf t

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.

Switch(config)#link state trac

Switch(config)#link state track 1 ?

Switch(config)#link state track 1

Switch(config)#end

Switch#show link state group detail

Link State Group: 1 Status: Enabled, Up

Upstream Interfaces : Po1(Up)

Downstream Interfaces : Gi0/1(Up) Gi0/2(Up) Gi0/3(Up) Gi0/4(Up) Gi0/5(Up)

Gi0/6(Up) Gi0/7(Up) Gi0/8(Up) Gi0/9(Up) Gi0/10(Up)

Gi0/11(Up) Gi0/12(Up) Gi0/13(Dwn)

Link State Group: 2 Status: Disabled, Down

Upstream Interfaces :

Downstream Interfaces :

(Up):Interface up (Dwn):Interface Down (Dis):Interface disabled

Switch#

Scott

www.xpresslearn.com

[rsohi]

Hi Thomas, take a look at the attached reference. Blade server integration guide. It may help:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps708/prod_end-of-life_notice0900aecd8035ece4.html

regards,

Raj

[kcoley]

You have attached wrong document. This is an EOS announcement for 6500 products.