Wired Intelligent Edge

Hello All,

Just wanted to ask how to stack 8x2930F switches.

Each member will stacking ports will be the fibre stacking ports 50 and 51. Using the DAC cables to stack them. 

I just wanted to make sure do I need to put each port on a different VSF link like the below example config:

vsf

   enable domain 10

   member 1

      type "JL254A" mac-address 9cdc71-944c80

      priority 128

      link 1 1/50

      link 1 name "I-Link1_1"

      link 2 1/51

      link 2 name "I-Link1_2"

      exit

   member 2

      type "JL254A" mac-address 9cdc71-943b40

      priority 128

      link 1 2/50

      link 1 name "I-Link2_1"

      link 2 2/51

      link 2 name "I-Link2_2"

      exit

   member 3

      type "JL254A" mac-address 9cdc71-940cc0

      priority 128

      link 1 3/50

      link 1 name "I-Link3_1"

      link 2 3/51

      link 2 name "I-Link3_2"

      exit

   member 4

      type "JL254A" mac-address 9cdc71-940cc0

      priority 128

      link 1 4/50

      link 1 name "I-Link3_1"

      link 2 4/51

      link 2 name "I-Link3_2"

      exit

   member 5

      type "JL254A" mac-address 9cdc71-940cc0

      priority 128

      link 1 5/50

      link 1 name "I-Link3_1"

      link 2 5/51

      link 2 name "I-Link3_2"

      exit

   member 6

      type "JL254A" mac-address 9cdc71-940cc0

      priority 128

      link 1 6/50

      link 1 name "I-Link3_1"

      link 2 6/51

      link 2 name "I-Link3_2"

      exit

   member 7

      type "JL254A" mac-address 9cdc71-940cc0

      priority 128

      link 1 7/50

      link 1 name "I-Link3_1"

      link 2 7/51

      link 2 name "I-Link3_2"

      exit

   member 8

      type "JL254A" mac-address 9cdc71-940cc0

      priority 128

      link 1 8/50

      link 1 name "I-Link3_1"

      link 2 8/51

      link 2 name "I-Link3_2"

      exit

Just wondering if the below stacking will work and if different links are required?

Thanks,

Provided that you will run all involved Switches with ArubaOS-Switch 16.06 or newer there are few errors in the lines you posted:

• Priorities (are wrong: only one Commander with high priority should exist, see VSF Best Practices)
• MAC Addresses (you repeated VSF Member 3 MAC Address also on VSF Members 4. 5, 6, 7 and 8).
• VSF Links names (you repeated "I-Link3_1" and "I-Link3_2" names of VSF Member 3 also on VSF Members 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8).
• Physical links between neighbour Switches should be: VSF Member 1 1/50 with VSF Member 2 2/51 for 1 --> 2, VSF Member 2 2/50 with VSF Member 3 3/51 for 2 --> 3 and so on up to closing the loop with 8 --> 1 with the last link between VSF Member 8 8/50 and VSF Member 1 1/51.

Greetings!

The configuration is essentially correct. If a VSF member is to be connected to two other members, those connections must be on two separate VSF links as you've noted.

If you have a preference for specific members to be the VSF Commander and Standby, make sure you change the priority of those members (Commander with highest priority, Standby with second-highest, and continue down the stack in descending order if desired).

Lastly, ensure that you cable the stack in a ring topology for optimal resiliency against the failure of a VSF link or member. 

As suggested by parnassus, refer to the Backplane Stacking and VSF Best Practices Guide (attached to the post) for more information. 

Thank you for the confirmation. Just wanted to check would the following work, i think it would work from your previous statement but just wanted to check

console into member 1 first
vsf member 1 priority 255
vsf member 1 link 1 51
vsf member 1 link 2 52
vsf enable domain 2

console into member 2
vsf member 1 priority 200
vsf member 2 link 1 51
vsf member 2 link 2 52
vsf enable domain 2

console into member 3
vsf member 3 link 1 51
vsf member 3 link 2 52
vsf enable domain 2

console into member 4
vsf member 4 link 1 51
vsf member 4 link 2 52
vsf enable domain 2

console into member 5
vsf member 5 link 1 51
vsf member 5 link 2 52
vsf enable domain 2

console into member 6
vsf member 6 link 1 51
vsf member 6 link 2 52
vsf enable domain 2

console into member 7
vsf member 7 link 1 51
vsf member 7 link 2 52
vsf enable domain 2

console into member 8
vsf member 8 link 1 51
vsf member 8 link 2 52
vsf enable domain 2

You can actually pre-provision VSF links and priorities from the Commander, so that you don't need to console into each individual member. (In fact, if you tried to configure VSF settings on each individual member before connecting them to the stack, those settings would be replaced by whatever is configured on the Commander anyway.) 

I would recommend following the "Strict provisioning" steps on page 6 of the Best Practices guide I linked to in my earlier post in order to configure the links and priorities on the Commander in advance. 

Apologies for the delayed response on this one.

I managed to stack all the switches by consoling in to each member and configuring it that way in the end.

When I tried to use the “Strict Provisioning” method it did not work at all for me.

I got the correct MAC address from each switch and provisioned each member from the command switch. When I then connected the switches to the commander (the member switches all had factory default config on them) they would not join the stack.

I then had to enable VSF on the individual switches and they joined the command but did not join the stack in the correct order.

At this point I just factory defaulted everything and configured each member individually.

This is interesting behavior. Do you happen to know what switch software versions were running on the Commander and the new members before you were able to join the stack, and whether there were any event log entries (either on the Commander or the switches trying to join) that may have indicated what the issue was?

Hi,

I was using software version: WC_16_08_0005.swi, I upgraded all commanders and members to this version before trying to use the strict provisioning method.

Have you personally used the strict provisioning method? Do you have the correct steps to stack the switches using strict provisioning ?

Here is a short summary of the process needed to manually provision VSF members:

1. Ensure the new member is in a factory default state
2. Configure VSF links on the Commander
3. Add the new VSF member to the Commander's configuration, including the part number and MAC address
4. Connect the new member to one of the VSF links on the Commander

When adding the new members, they must be connected to a VSF link on the Commander, and I suspect that if you only followed the steps in the strict provisioning procedure, you may not have had any VSF links configured on the Commander itself — which means that new members wouldn't be able to join the stack no matter which method you were trying to use.  

I will revise the strict provisioning process in the guide in the next couple of days to explicitly point out that configuring VSF links on the Commander (step #2 above) is still required — it is currently included in the 'semi-automatic' provisioning procedure, but is actually common to both methods and should be noted as such.

[TL;DR – The guide should explicitly include Commander VSF link configuration in both provisioning methods and will be fixed shortly.]

Thanks for this, I will try this again the next time I am setting up these switches.