Comware

Hi Team,

There will be an integration with 2 new HP 5820AF-24XG Switches with existing 15 Cisco 3560 switches.

the new HP switches config is simply running PV RSTP and one configuring 1 IP address for management.

I'd like to confirm with you, if there will be any compatability issue with Cisco switches regarding spanning tree, as this network is very critical   (carring a critical data for customer) and I am afraid of facing loops lead to traffic outage.

Did any one have a similar scenarios like this, and have any issues with Cisco switches?

I highly appreciate your feedback, and any official documentations for this.

Thanks,

Ahmed

Ahmed,

There are no know issues with HP and Cisco STP interop.  We validated multiple variants of STP (STP, PVST, MSTP) between HP and Cisco IOS devices.  You can download the report as well as all the switch configuration from www.networktest.com/hpiop

I'm not sure what the design is but if you were to IRF the 5820's together you could create LAGs (link aggregation groups/port channels) between the 5820's and  3560's and remove STP completely.

I hope that answers your questions.

-jeff

Loopfree design with IRF is always prefered however due to "better safe than sorry" enabling spanning tree is always a good choice.

Dont forget to harden your spanning-tree configuration regarding rootguard, bpduguard, manually set priority for designated root-bridges etc.

If you want the report without registering you can get it for free without lame registration from HP:

Network Test: HP-Cisco Switching and Routing Interoperability Cookbook

http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA5-4136ENW&doctype=analyst%20report&doclang=EN_US&searchquery=&cc=us&lc=en