Wired Intelligent Edge

Hi, I want to deploy 6300M switches as my core and want to stack them.  This simplifies and adds great resiliency by allowing me to split port-channels between switches, which would maintain continuity when a switch in the stack. Additionally, having a stacked core allows me to deploy a campus vxlan network with the benefit of having a single L3 gateway and also have resiliency. 

My only problem is core OS upgrades.  I must maintain data plane continuity or this solution collapses.  I see starting in v10.11 that ISSU was made available, however, the caveat was that only 6400 switches support ISSU.

Are there any plans or roadmap to add ISSSU to the 6300M series switches?  

Thanks for any insights you can provide

Hi, I want to deploy 6300M switches as my core and want to stack them.  This simplifies and adds great resiliency by allowing me to split port-channels between switches, which would maintain continuity when a switch in the stack. Additionally, having a stacked core allows me to deploy a campus vxlan network with the benefit of having a single L3 gateway and also have resiliency. 

My only problem is core OS upgrades.  I must maintain data plane continuity or this solution collapses.  I see starting in v10.11 that ISSU was made available, however, the caveat was that only 6400 switches support ISSU.

Are there any plans or roadmap to add ISSSU to the 6300M series switches?  

Thanks for any insights you can provide

ISSU is now fully supported on 6300 VSF without traffic interruption including when the VSF conductor is upgraded since 10.13.0005 (enhancement compared to previous release).

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 16, 2023 09:57 AM
From: RS25
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

Hi, I want to deploy 6300M switches as my core and want to stack them.  This simplifies and adds great resiliency by allowing me to split port-channels between switches, which would maintain continuity when a switch in the stack. Additionally, having a stacked core allows me to deploy a campus vxlan network with the benefit of having a single L3 gateway and also have resiliency. 

My only problem is core OS upgrades.  I must maintain data plane continuity or this solution collapses.  I see starting in v10.11 that ISSU was made available, however, the caveat was that only 6400 switches support ISSU.

Are there any plans or roadmap to add ISSSU to the 6300M series switches?  

Thanks for any insights you can provide

Hi Vincent! wasn't the ESU (Enhanced Software Upgrade) implementation (tied to VSF) already providing an hit-less mechanism for updating software of a VSF stack without interrupting its communications with connected peers? I mean...considering "multi-homed peers" connected to the VSF stack and not just the simpler case of "single-homed peers" connected to a specific VSF Member...or are you saying that now VSF ESU supports major version upgrade (e.g. from AOS-CX 10.12 to AOS-CX 10.13, which AFAIK is/was unsupported before)? Or are you saying that VSF Conductor is not going to be rebooted by the ESU procedure? I don't understand...

Edit: Or I misunderstood the "ISSU" believing that ISSU means/equals to ESU when speaking about hit-less management in the AOS-CX VSF world (thus Comware IRF+ISSU = AOS-CX VSF+ESU)? I know that another thing is the ISSU on VSX pair when the standalone VSX node has dual MMs (in that case the ISSU is called really ISSU)...but that's another story.

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 20, 2023 08:27 AM
From: vincent.giles
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

ISSU is now fully supported on 6300 VSF without traffic interruption including when the VSF conductor is upgraded since 10.13.0005 (enhancement compared to previous release).

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 16, 2023 09:57 AM
From: RS25
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

Hi, I want to deploy 6300M switches as my core and want to stack them.  This simplifies and adds great resiliency by allowing me to split port-channels between switches, which would maintain continuity when a switch in the stack. Additionally, having a stacked core allows me to deploy a campus vxlan network with the benefit of having a single L3 gateway and also have resiliency. 

My only problem is core OS upgrades.  I must maintain data plane continuity or this solution collapses.  I see starting in v10.11 that ISSU was made available, however, the caveat was that only 6400 switches support ISSU.

Are there any plans or roadmap to add ISSSU to the 6300M series switches?  

Thanks for any insights you can provide

Hi Davide, since 10.13 VSF ESU becomes true ISSU because even for single-homed attached client on any member, including conductor, there is no traffic loss.

It is still supported within the same major release (i.e. from 10.13.x to 10.13.y). This is purely about VSF improvement.

Hi Vincent! wasn't the ESU (Enhanced Software Upgrade) implementation (tied to VSF) already providing an hit-less mechanism for updating software of a VSF stack without interrupting its communications with connected peers? I mean...considering "multi-homed peers" connected to the VSF stack and not just the simpler case of "single-homed peers" connected to a specific VSF Member...or are you saying that now VSF ESU supports major version upgrade (e.g. from AOS-CX 10.12 to AOS-CX 10.13, which AFAIK is/was unsupported before)? Or are you saying that VSF Conductor is not going to be rebooted by the ESU procedure? I don't understand...

Edit: Or I misunderstood the "ISSU" believing that ISSU means/equals to ESU when speaking about hit-less management in the AOS-CX VSF world (thus Comware IRF+ISSU = AOS-CX VSF+ESU)? I know that another thing is the ISSU on VSX pair when the standalone VSX node has dual MMs (in that case the ISSU is called really ISSU)...but that's another story.

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 20, 2023 08:27 AM
From: vincent.giles
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

ISSU is now fully supported on 6300 VSF without traffic interruption including when the VSF conductor is upgraded since 10.13.0005 (enhancement compared to previous release).

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 16, 2023 09:57 AM
From: RS25
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

Hi, I want to deploy 6300M switches as my core and want to stack them.  This simplifies and adds great resiliency by allowing me to split port-channels between switches, which would maintain continuity when a switch in the stack. Additionally, having a stacked core allows me to deploy a campus vxlan network with the benefit of having a single L3 gateway and also have resiliency. 

My only problem is core OS upgrades.  I must maintain data plane continuity or this solution collapses.  I see starting in v10.11 that ISSU was made available, however, the caveat was that only 6400 switches support ISSU.

Are there any plans or roadmap to add ISSSU to the 6300M series switches?  

Thanks for any insights you can provide

Hi Davide, since 10.13 VSF ESU becomes true ISSU because even for single-homed attached client on any member, including conductor, there is no traffic loss.

It is still supported within the same major release (i.e. from 10.13.x to 10.13.y). This is purely about VSF improvement.

Hi Vincent! wasn't the ESU (Enhanced Software Upgrade) implementation (tied to VSF) already providing an hit-less mechanism for updating software of a VSF stack without interrupting its communications with connected peers? I mean...considering "multi-homed peers" connected to the VSF stack and not just the simpler case of "single-homed peers" connected to a specific VSF Member...or are you saying that now VSF ESU supports major version upgrade (e.g. from AOS-CX 10.12 to AOS-CX 10.13, which AFAIK is/was unsupported before)? Or are you saying that VSF Conductor is not going to be rebooted by the ESU procedure? I don't understand...

Edit: Or I misunderstood the "ISSU" believing that ISSU means/equals to ESU when speaking about hit-less management in the AOS-CX VSF world (thus Comware IRF+ISSU = AOS-CX VSF+ESU)? I know that another thing is the ISSU on VSX pair when the standalone VSX node has dual MMs (in that case the ISSU is called really ISSU)...but that's another story.

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 20, 2023 08:27 AM
From: vincent.giles
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

ISSU is now fully supported on 6300 VSF without traffic interruption including when the VSF conductor is upgraded since 10.13.0005 (enhancement compared to previous release).

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 16, 2023 09:57 AM
From: RS25
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

Hi, I want to deploy 6300M switches as my core and want to stack them.  This simplifies and adds great resiliency by allowing me to split port-channels between switches, which would maintain continuity when a switch in the stack. Additionally, having a stacked core allows me to deploy a campus vxlan network with the benefit of having a single L3 gateway and also have resiliency. 

My only problem is core OS upgrades.  I must maintain data plane continuity or this solution collapses.  I see starting in v10.11 that ISSU was made available, however, the caveat was that only 6400 switches support ISSU.

Are there any plans or roadmap to add ISSSU to the 6300M series switches?  

Thanks for any insights you can provide

Hi Davide, since 10.13 VSF ESU becomes true ISSU because even for single-homed attached client on any member, including conductor, there is no traffic loss.

It is still supported within the same major release (i.e. from 10.13.x to 10.13.y). This is purely about VSF improvement.

Hi Vincent! wasn't the ESU (Enhanced Software Upgrade) implementation (tied to VSF) already providing an hit-less mechanism for updating software of a VSF stack without interrupting its communications with connected peers? I mean...considering "multi-homed peers" connected to the VSF stack and not just the simpler case of "single-homed peers" connected to a specific VSF Member...or are you saying that now VSF ESU supports major version upgrade (e.g. from AOS-CX 10.12 to AOS-CX 10.13, which AFAIK is/was unsupported before)? Or are you saying that VSF Conductor is not going to be rebooted by the ESU procedure? I don't understand...

Edit: Or I misunderstood the "ISSU" believing that ISSU means/equals to ESU when speaking about hit-less management in the AOS-CX VSF world (thus Comware IRF+ISSU = AOS-CX VSF+ESU)? I know that another thing is the ISSU on VSX pair when the standalone VSX node has dual MMs (in that case the ISSU is called really ISSU)...but that's another story.

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 20, 2023 08:27 AM
From: vincent.giles
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

ISSU is now fully supported on 6300 VSF without traffic interruption including when the VSF conductor is upgraded since 10.13.0005 (enhancement compared to previous release).

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 16, 2023 09:57 AM
From: RS25
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

Hi, I want to deploy 6300M switches as my core and want to stack them.  This simplifies and adds great resiliency by allowing me to split port-channels between switches, which would maintain continuity when a switch in the stack. Additionally, having a stacked core allows me to deploy a campus vxlan network with the benefit of having a single L3 gateway and also have resiliency. 

My only problem is core OS upgrades.  I must maintain data plane continuity or this solution collapses.  I see starting in v10.11 that ISSU was made available, however, the caveat was that only 6400 switches support ISSU.

Are there any plans or roadmap to add ISSSU to the 6300M series switches?  

Thanks for any insights you can provide

on page 37 in: AOS-CX 10.13 Virtual Switching Framework (VSF) Guide | (6200, 6300 Switch Series)

There is a note stating: VSF ISSU is supported for upgrades between minor releases.

I interpret this as 10.13.x to 10.13.y ONLY .. and still does not support major upgrades from say, 10.13 to 10.14. 

Would you agree, Vincent?

Hi Davide, since 10.13 VSF ESU becomes true ISSU because even for single-homed attached client on any member, including conductor, there is no traffic loss.

It is still supported within the same major release (i.e. from 10.13.x to 10.13.y). This is purely about VSF improvement.

Hi Vincent! wasn't the ESU (Enhanced Software Upgrade) implementation (tied to VSF) already providing an hit-less mechanism for updating software of a VSF stack without interrupting its communications with connected peers? I mean...considering "multi-homed peers" connected to the VSF stack and not just the simpler case of "single-homed peers" connected to a specific VSF Member...or are you saying that now VSF ESU supports major version upgrade (e.g. from AOS-CX 10.12 to AOS-CX 10.13, which AFAIK is/was unsupported before)? Or are you saying that VSF Conductor is not going to be rebooted by the ESU procedure? I don't understand...

Edit: Or I misunderstood the "ISSU" believing that ISSU means/equals to ESU when speaking about hit-less management in the AOS-CX VSF world (thus Comware IRF+ISSU = AOS-CX VSF+ESU)? I know that another thing is the ISSU on VSX pair when the standalone VSX node has dual MMs (in that case the ISSU is called really ISSU)...but that's another story.

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 20, 2023 08:27 AM
From: vincent.giles
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

ISSU is now fully supported on 6300 VSF without traffic interruption including when the VSF conductor is upgraded since 10.13.0005 (enhancement compared to previous release).

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 16, 2023 09:57 AM
From: RS25
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

Hi, I want to deploy 6300M switches as my core and want to stack them.  This simplifies and adds great resiliency by allowing me to split port-channels between switches, which would maintain continuity when a switch in the stack. Additionally, having a stacked core allows me to deploy a campus vxlan network with the benefit of having a single L3 gateway and also have resiliency. 

My only problem is core OS upgrades.  I must maintain data plane continuity or this solution collapses.  I see starting in v10.11 that ISSU was made available, however, the caveat was that only 6400 switches support ISSU.

Are there any plans or roadmap to add ISSSU to the 6300M series switches?  

Thanks for any insights you can provide

on page 37 in: AOS-CX 10.13 Virtual Switching Framework (VSF) Guide | (6200, 6300 Switch Series)

There is a note stating: VSF ISSU is supported for upgrades between minor releases.

I interpret this as 10.13.x to 10.13.y ONLY .. and still does not support major upgrades from say, 10.13 to 10.14. 

Would you agree, Vincent?

Hi Davide, since 10.13 VSF ESU becomes true ISSU because even for single-homed attached client on any member, including conductor, there is no traffic loss.

It is still supported within the same major release (i.e. from 10.13.x to 10.13.y). This is purely about VSF improvement.

Hi Vincent! wasn't the ESU (Enhanced Software Upgrade) implementation (tied to VSF) already providing an hit-less mechanism for updating software of a VSF stack without interrupting its communications with connected peers? I mean...considering "multi-homed peers" connected to the VSF stack and not just the simpler case of "single-homed peers" connected to a specific VSF Member...or are you saying that now VSF ESU supports major version upgrade (e.g. from AOS-CX 10.12 to AOS-CX 10.13, which AFAIK is/was unsupported before)? Or are you saying that VSF Conductor is not going to be rebooted by the ESU procedure? I don't understand...

Edit: Or I misunderstood the "ISSU" believing that ISSU means/equals to ESU when speaking about hit-less management in the AOS-CX VSF world (thus Comware IRF+ISSU = AOS-CX VSF+ESU)? I know that another thing is the ISSU on VSX pair when the standalone VSX node has dual MMs (in that case the ISSU is called really ISSU)...but that's another story.

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 20, 2023 08:27 AM
From: vincent.giles
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

ISSU is now fully supported on 6300 VSF without traffic interruption including when the VSF conductor is upgraded since 10.13.0005 (enhancement compared to previous release).

Original Message:
Sent: Nov 16, 2023 09:57 AM
From: RS25
Subject: 6300M Stack - Any plans to support ISSU?

Hi, I want to deploy 6300M switches as my core and want to stack them.  This simplifies and adds great resiliency by allowing me to split port-channels between switches, which would maintain continuity when a switch in the stack. Additionally, having a stacked core allows me to deploy a campus vxlan network with the benefit of having a single L3 gateway and also have resiliency. 

My only problem is core OS upgrades.  I must maintain data plane continuity or this solution collapses.  I see starting in v10.11 that ISSU was made available, however, the caveat was that only 6400 switches support ISSU.

Are there any plans or roadmap to add ISSSU to the 6300M series switches?  

Thanks for any insights you can provide