Catalyst 65K VSS setup

[Maurice Ball]

I am currently using two Catalyst 6500 switches on my network. I am in the process of implementing VSS between the two switches.

I currently have HSRP groups configured on all Vlans on the switches to manage traffic on the network. My question is do I need to remove the HSRP groups from the switches before I implement VSS?

[Masoud Pourshabanian]

Hello,

You can keep them until the end of migration. After migration, your interfaces will still have the HSRP ip addresses. Then you can remove the main interface IP and replace it with HSRP address.

In this way, your downtime will be shorter since your other systems and switchs are using HSRP IP as gateways. However, if you remove HSRP before, other systems will lost their connections untill you migrate and correct the IP addresses.

Hope it helps,

Masoud

[Maurice Ball]

Ok, good to know. What about my routing protocols configuration. I have BGP and OSPF configured on both switches. Will the routing protocols configuration merge together?

[Masoud Pourshabanian · Accepted solution]

Hello,

You can also keep them until the end of migeration. VSS changes  the configuration a little bit so at the end you need to do some fixes removing extra commands.

Please take a look at the link below for both HSRP and routing protocol.

"VSS simplifies the routing configuration, so some of the network statements are no longer required. Therefore, they can be removed"

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/switches/catalyst-6500-virtual-switching-system-1440/109573-vss-migration.html

Masoud

[Maurice Ball]

Thanks for the help.

[Masoud Pourshabanian]

Glad to help. Just I need to mention that you will hove down time anyway because you need to reset your switches and do a little bit changes. You should request a downtime before migration.

Masoud

[Maurice Ball]

Masoud,

One more question, when setting up the VSL between the switches. What is the best practice?  Should I use both of the 10 gb interfaces on the supervisor or should I use one of the interfaces on the supervisor and another interface on a line card?

[Masoud Pourshabanian · Accepted solution]

Hello,

You should use deversified connections.

Please check the link below

"Use redundant hardware (ports, line cards, and internal resources connecting the port) "

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Campus/VSS30dg/campusVSS_DG/VSS-dg_ch2.html#wpxref77183

Hope it helps,

Masoud

[Maurice Ball]

Masoud,

I have Firewall modules installed in each of my Catalyst 6500 switches. The firewalls are configured in failover active standby configuration. When I implement VSS between the two Cat 65K, will this cause any issues with the firewall modules?

[Reza Sharifi]

That should not be an issue.

See this link for config example:

The configuration of FWSM in VSS environment is as transparent as other VSS components (such as Cisco Catalyst 6500 line cards). It is important to note that no special configuration is needed within the FWSM module and the impact is very well contained within the usual model change associated with VSS and non-VSS mode (standalone mode). Following is a summary of CLIs that are needed to have an FWSM function in VSS mode.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-6500-virtual-switching-system-1440/white_paper_c11_513360.html

HTH

[Maurice Ball]

Ok, great. thanks again for you help.

[jbowman1985]

Hi Maurice,

I know your questions have been answered, but if you are still trying to wrap your head around VSS; you can think of it like this:

VSS takes two separate chassis, in your case two 6500s and merges them into one logical chassis.  So instead of 2 separate control planes, you now have one.  It is like stacking switches, but different.  The data planes are separate so switching is done on each 6500.

[Maurice Ball]

Great info.

Thank you guys for all your help. 

[Masoud Pourshabanian]

Hello,

As Reza mentioned, there will not be any issue. FWSM configuration is the same as before migeration. If you have only one context, then only one FWSM will be active and other one is standby. If you have more than one context, you can share load on two FWSMs. It is kind of similar to HSRP. Comparing with HSRP is not good, just for understaniding. As an example, Context1 would be active on SW1 and standby in SW2 and Context2  passive on SW1 and active in SW2 if you configure it correctly.

Hope it helps,

Masoud

[Reza Sharifi]

Yes, with VSS you don't need HSRP, VRRP, etc.. anymore, as the 2 physical switches logically become one switch. Migrating from stand-alone to VSS will change all your port configuration and will require downtime. Conversion should be done in an outage window.

HTH