Hi fsweetser:
Have you considered our switch aggregation / clustering technologies: IRF and VSF?
With IRF/VSF you can eliminate the need for STP/MSTP to manage redundant links between the different LAN layers: core, aggregation (distribution), and access.
IRF/VSF makes two modular switches to appear as one at every OSI layer from 2 to 7. For example:
- in Layer 2, as all ports look and behave as it they were on the same chassis, you can use link aggregation instead of STP
- you gain simplicity and a faster recovery time in the case of link failure
- in layer 3, all IP interfaces are shared between both chassis, so VRRP is not required and if OSPF is used, only one OSPF process controls all routes on both physical chassis - in fact there is a single control plane and a single routing table
- in layers above 3: single SNMP agent, Telnet and FTP server, etc are shared by the whole system, in other words, there is a single management plane
The following diagram shows the physical and logical views of a network that has IRF/VSF both at the core and aggregation layers.
VSF will become available on the Aruba 5400R switch series at the beginning of February, 2016 and later this year on our new Aruba 3810 Switch Series (these switches offer a backplane stacking option today).
IRF has been available on many HPE data center and campus modular switch series (example: HPE 10500 and 7500 Switch Series) for at least 4 years and on stackables (example: HPE 5500 EI Switch Series) for at least 8 years.
If you are interested and need more information, feel free to continue this conversation.
Best regards,
Ruben Iglesias
Global Technical Marketing Engineer / Networking
Hewlett Packard Enterprise