Setting up redundant servers on a L2 switch

[praveenmenon]

Hi ,

         I have two dell servers ( Primary and backup ) connected to a L2 cisco switch . The basic idea is that all the traffic should go to the primary server and incase it fails the traffic should switch over to backup server . Let me know what configuration we need to do on the switch .

I would  really appreciate any help .

Thanks

[Somasundaram Jayaraman]

Hi,

You can configure etherchannel bundling two links, so that if one link fails then the traffic would get forwarded via the other link.

-http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk213/technologies_configuration_example09186a008089a821.shtml

Hope this answers your question.

Cheers

Somu

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[ajay chauhan]

Nothing like that comes on switch you might be talking about server cluster thats on server itself.

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

I have two dell servers ( Primary and backup ) connected to a L2 cisco switch . The basic idea is that all the traffic should go to the primary server and incase it fails the traffic should switch over to backup server . Let me know what configuration we need to do on the switch .

What kind of switch?

IT doesn't work like that.  You have two servers connecting to ONE switch.  For now, I'll discuss about your servers.

The switch DOES NOT CARE which is your primary or secondary server.  When data is received by the switch it will look at the DESTINATION MAC ADDRESS.  If the switch doesn't know about the MAC address, it will send a message out to all the ports (except the port where the data came from) in the words like, "Which one of you clowns is 00-00-11-11-22-22?".  The switch then send it down the correct port at the same time taking a note that port X has MAC address 00-00-11-11-22-22.

Now if your primary server fails, and the server ain't configured for High Availability (HA) then the data is dropped because no one responds to the destination MAC address of 00-00-11-11-22-22. 

In essence, you need to configure your server and nothing else is needed on the switch (unless you have EtherChannel).

Now your setup is not yet fool-proof.  What happens if the switch fails?  

[praveenmenon]

Hi leolaohoo

                    What would be a better design in your openion . Should I add another switch ?

Thank you for your reply

With regards

Praveen P

[egain.com]

hi Praveen,

you will need cisco content switch CSS or other make of load balanacer.

This is not the right forum for it..

regards

Rakesh

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[fb_webuser]

Check out this approach -- http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1355228

http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1355228

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Posted by WebUser Brannon Lamoureux

[fb_webuser]

http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1355228

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Posted by WebUser Brannon Lamoureux

[fb_webuser]

Hei,

I think you cant do this with only L2 Cisco Switch. If you use Microsoft you can use Microsoft Cluster. If you dont, you can use Load Balancer Technology , using Cisco ACE.

CMIIW

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Posted by WebUser Djoko Setyanto