Physical Switch Configuration - ProCurve 2810-24g switches.

[kerberos242]

We have 2 Procurve 2810-24g switches and several hosts with 8 NICs each.

I have the switches stacked so I can lose a single switch and maintain connectivity.

I intend to use 2 NICs from each host to back a single vSwitch. pNIC0 from a host will be connected to switch port 10 on switchA and pNIC1 will be connected to switch port 10 on switchB.

This establishes redundancy, although I don't think I can dynamically load balance across the 2 paths because I don't think the ProCurve 2810-24G will let me trunk ports across the 2 switches. Please correct me on this point if I am wrong.

I still need to establish VLAN trunking because on a single vSwitch, I intend to have 10+ VLANs. In reading through the configuration manual for the 2810-24G, I can not figure out how to set the port as a VLAN Trunk so it will accept traffic from multiple VLANs.

Any help is appreciated. Apologies for the formatting of this post. Just tired from fighting with this for the past several hours.    

[chriswahl]

The terms are a bit ambiguous - are you looking to create a "HP" Trunk (logical group of ports, which is called a port channel or EtherChannel in the Cisco world) or a "Cisco" style Trunk (a port that can pass multiple VLANs)? Both vendors went with different meanings for the word "trunk" unfortunately.

Assuming you want to pass multiple VLANs on a single port with your 2810 switch, you would add the port as a member to the VLANs you wish to pass. I believe show vlan <#> will show you who is a member of that VLAN, and then you would make the changes required from there to get all 10 set up. From what I recall, an HP Trunk (collection of ports) works roughly the same and will add all members of the trunk to the VLANs you specify to a single port.

[kerberos242]

I can't thank you enough for the response.

Chris Wahl wrote:

The terms are a bit ambiguous - are you looking to create a "HP" Trunk (logical group of ports, which is called a port channel or EtherChannel in the Cisco world) or a "Cisco" style Trunk (a port that can pass multiple VLANs)? Both vendors went with different meanings for the word "trunk" unfortunately.

Yes, it's terribly confusing.

I'm looking setup a "port channel" on my HP switches from switch A to switch B for failover/load balancing.

I am also looking to give that same virtual port (consisting of the 2 physical ports) the ability to pass the traffic of multiple VLANs.

Chris Wahl wrote:

Assuming you want to pass multiple VLANs on a single port with your 2810 switch, you would add the port as a member to the VLANs you wish to pass. I believe show vlan <#> will show you who is a member of that VLAN, and then you would make the changes required from there to get all 10 set up. From what I recall, an HP Trunk (collection of ports) works roughly the same and will add all members of the trunk to the VLANs you specify to a single port.

So I just setup the VLANs and then I can add a virtual port like "Trk5" to every VLAN I've created?

[chriswahl]

You've got it. I haven't worked on a ProCurve in a long time, but my memory and documentation both support this process.

[rickardnobel]

kerberos242 wrote:

I still need to establish VLAN trunking because on a single vSwitch, I intend to have 10+ VLANs. In reading through the configuration manual for the 2810-24G, I can not figure out how to set the port as a VLAN Trunk so it will accept traffic from multiple VLANs.

What information do you seek: how to create the VLAN tagging to the ESXi hosts or how to create the NIC team between your two switches?

How you done any configuration so far?

The actual configuration is not hard, so this should we be able to get right for you.

[beeguar]

I know how to tag the VMPGs.

From what I've read in the documentation for the 2810s, they do not support cross switch port trunking or "etherchannel/portchannel" as it is called in the Cisco world.

I've done minimal configuration

[rickardnobel]

Brett Guarino wrote:

From what I've read in the documentation for the 2810s, they do not support cross switch port trunking or "etherchannel/portchannel" as it is called in the Cisco world.

In some of the very latest releases of firmware there has been some support introduced for cross switch "distributed trunking", however I do not remember if the 2810 has this or not.

But, in my opinion, often the Port ID policy spread to two physical switches will be good enough. You would have to just bundle some interfaces together in a "trunk" between the two switches and attach the tagged VLANs to those.

For the ports connecting to the ESXi hosts you would just have to add them to the VLANs as well as "tagged".

[beeguar]

From HP's support page, I am unable to identify any current software support for the Procurve 2810.

I think I'm running 11.52 firmware which was the latest as of April 2012.

Rickard Nobel wrote:

But, in my opinion, often the Port ID policy spread to two physical switches will be good enough. You would have to just bundle some interfaces together in a "trunk" between the two switches and attach the tagged VLANs to those.

For the ports connecting to the ESXi hosts you would just have to add them to the VLANs as well as "tagged".

Rickard,

Thanks for your help!

It appears that there is no methond on the 2810 to bundle interfaces across 2 switches. For example, I can bundle ports 1 and 2 on switch A into a virtual port called "TRK 1." I can not bundle port 1 on switch A and port 1 on switch B to from a virtual port called "TRK 1."

Which is the problem I am facing.

Check the attached image to see how I intend to connect things since I do not think it is possible to setup the trunks across the switches.

[rickardnobel]

Brett Guarino wrote:

From HP's support page, I am unable to identify any current software support for the Procurve 2810.

I think I'm running 11.52 firmware which was the latest as of April 2012.

If no support for what HP calls Distributed Switch Trunkning is stated then that feature is not available. I think the 2910 series might have it.

It appears that there is no methond on the 2810 to bundle interfaces across 2 switches. For example, I can bundle ports 1 and 2 on switch A into a virtual port called "TRK 1." I can not bundle port 1 on switch A and port 1 on switch B to from a virtual port called "TRK 1."

Which is the problem I am facing.

Check the attached image to see how I intend to connect things since I do not think it is possible to setup the trunks across the switches.

Your solution in the picture would work good. You could also connect some ports between the switches in a trunk, depending on the rest of the network topology.

Does the host only have two NIC ports?

[beeguar]

Rickard Nobel wrote:

Your solution in the picture would work good. You could also connect some ports between the switches in a trunk, depending on the rest of the network topology.

Does the host only have two NIC ports?

I don't think I can trunk the ports across the switches.

The host has 8 NICs I was making the illustration as simple as possible.

Thanks so much for your help!

[rickardnobel]

Brett Guarino wrote:

I don't think I can trunk the ports across the switches.

That is very possible and often good to do, but it will depend on the configuration on the rest of your physical network.