Load Balance/Redundant ISP Connection

fanatic1217 · ‎09-23-2015

Our Company has 2 fiber leased line connections that are on completely separate fiber paths using 2 separate vendor managed switches. These two switches connect to our Core Switch. I want to find a way to load balance these leased line connections. 1 is 200mbps and the other is 50. Both are gig ports. Is there a way to do this? I was looking into EtherChannels but it appears that the connections must go to the same devices for that to work. What would be the simplest and most effective way to accomplish this?

Example set up

Core Switch p 1 to vendor switch 1 (200)

Core Switch p 2 to vendor switch 2 (50)

devils_advocate · ‎09-23-2015

What model of switches do you have?

Are you doing any dynamic routing with the Vendor switches ?

fanatic1217 · ‎09-23-2015

4507 switch. The other switches are vendor switches. Also, there isn't any routing on the switch for these connections, it's a layer 2 backup connection.

Ganesh Hariharan · ‎09-23-2015

Our Company has 2 fiber leased line connections that are on completely separate fiber paths using 2 separate vendor managed switches. These two switches connect to our Core Switch. I want to find a way to load balance these leased line connections. 1 is 200mbps and the other is 50. Both are gig ports. Is there a way to do this? I was looking into EtherChannels but it appears that the connections must go to the same devices for that to work. What would be the simplest and most effective way to accomplish this?

Example set up

Core Switch p 1 to vendor switch 1 (200)

Core Switch p 2 to vendor switch 2 (50)

Hi,

Please answer the below query to provide you best thoughts..

What model is your Core switch ?? ..And do you want Active-Active load balancing or Active/Standby ??

What routing protocol is running in core switches and what has been agreed to run with your ISP's ?

--GI

fanatic1217 · ‎09-23-2015

We at the least need a Hot/Standby but would prefer a hot/hot load-balance. With this connection, there isn't any routing as it is leased line to layer 2 devices, basically an extended switched network, there is some inter-vlan routing, we use EIGRP for the most part.

Ganesh Hariharan · ‎09-23-2015

We at the least need a Hot/Standby but would prefer a hot/hot load-balance. With this connection, there isn't any routing as it is leased line to layer 2 devices, basically an extended switched network, there is some inter-vlan routing, we use EIGRP for the most part.

Hi,

You can configure HSRP for LAN part if you are using two 4500 series switches , and I would recommend a simple setup with static routing pointing best traffic route towards 200 Mbps connection and floating static towards 50 Mbps using IPSLA methodology for automatic failover.

Hope that Helps..

--GI

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fanatic1217 · ‎09-23-2015

There are 2- 4507 switches but they are part of a supervisor controlled setup. The Vendor Switches are not locally managed and are in their own vendor labeled box, hard to tell what type of switches they are.

Background Info- this connection is to allow the 4507 to communicate with many other switches in a mesh network. However, the 4507 is the core location. The idea is to utilize the secondary network so that we don't have to manually no shut the interface for the secondary network to take over.

Ganesh Hariharan · ‎09-23-2015

There are 2- 4507 switches but they are part of a supervisor controlled setup. The Vendor Switches are not locally managed and are in their own vendor labeled box, hard to tell what type of switches they are.


Background Info- this connection is to allow the 4507 to communicate with many other switches in a mesh network. However, the 4507 is the core location. The idea is to utilize the secondary network so that we don't have to manually no shut the interface for the secondary network to take over.

Hi,

Just give a thought to below link on IP SLA stuff which i have mentioned.

http://www.firewall.cx/cisco-technical-knowledgebase/cisco-routers/813-cisco-router-ipsla-basic.html

Note :- Cisco 4507 series should be running 12.2(46) SG feature set for IP SLA object tracking.

Let me know your view once you have gone through the link.

Hope that Helps

-GI

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fanatic1217 · ‎09-23-2015

This link looks very helpful, however we are not using IP over these connections as it is strictly VLAN traffic and there isn't routing taking place, would this setup work without IP's? The more I think about this the more I don't know how we would shape this traffic. I think the best case scenario is for us to get to a point of Hot/Standby. Basically I am after an etherchannel type connection but instead of to the same device, I want it to sepearte devices.

Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Ganesh Hariharan · ‎09-23-2015

This link looks very helpful, however we are not using IP over these connections as it is strictly VLAN traffic and there isn't routing taking place, would this setup work without IP's? The more I think about this the more I don't know how we would shape this traffic. I think the best case scenario is for us to get to a point of Hot/Standby. Basically I am after an etherchannel type connection but instead of to the same device, I want it to sepearte devices.


Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hi,

If these ISP links are connected with CIR as per agreement by Vendors. Normally a standard design they have separate subnet for point to point connectivity for routing into internet world.

I belive ISP would ask you to configure ip in SVI over a common vlan between your organisation and them for routing purposes.

If the above is true then you can achieve active/standby design with details and prerequisite provided in my earlier post.

Hope that clarify your thoughts..

-GI

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