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Hello Gurus, 

I want your advice on a network design that I'm currently preparing, 
The customer has an HQ and 2 branch offices in the same zone connected via single-mode fibers.
the plan is we are renewing switches, and we will have 
HQ - 4x cx6300 stack switches 
branch 1 - 2x cx6300 stack switches 
branch 2 - 2x cx3600 stack switches 

the customer wants to run easy connectivity between sites which is a simple L2, 5x VLANs extended from HQ to branches. 
to move with the customer proposal - I will setup STP to manage the loop and have HQ as a root bridge, 

from I'm personally thinking of instead, I'll do OSPF between all my stack switches and get rid of broadcast traffic headache, and complexity of managing loop/STP if any. 

I want to know please what do you recommend here, a simple network L2 extended and setup STP, or do OSPF,  I'll need a detailed answer for each option what is the best choice =) 



Thanks.

wanted to highlight one of the Switching Gurus here Mr.@parnassus for post visibility, 
but please I am interested in everyone's input/contribution. 

Original Message:
Sent: Sep 19, 2022 03:08 PM
From: Ayoub Chabrouk
Subject: CX switch stack at the edge (design validation)

Hello Gurus,

I want your advice on a network design that I'm currently preparing,
The customer has an HQ and 2 branch offices in the same zone connected via single-mode fibers.
the plan is we are renewing switches, and we will have
HQ - 4x cx6300 stack switches
branch 1 - 2x cx6300 stack switches
branch 2 - 2x cx3600 stack switches

the customer wants to run easy connectivity between sites which is a simple L2, 5x VLANs extended from HQ to branches.
to move with the customer proposal - I will setup STP to manage the loop and have HQ as a root bridge,

from I'm personally thinking of instead, I'll do OSPF between all my stack switches and get rid of broadcast traffic headache, and complexity of managing loop/STP if any.

I want to know please what do you recommend here, a simple network L2 extended and setup STP, or do OSPF,  I'll need a detailed answer for each option what is the best choice =)



Thanks.

Hi! looking at your network topology I don't believe that dealing with a properly configured STP (RSTP, as example) will cause you any issue, the additional (for redundancy) link between branch sites will be blocked (and you can work with the priority to keep it disabled from the STP standpoint preferring the direct links between each branch site and the HQ site). I mean I don't see any particular overhead or complexity once you have defined the STP topology (HQ stack will be STP Root) and properly configured downlinks to stacks placed at branch sites. I personally would be more worried about the single links between HQ and branch sites (If I understood the map correctly) since a single link doesn't fit well when you're dealing with stacks (VSF deployed on ArubaOS-CX in this particular case), I mean the redundancy is absent and there is a strong dependency (full I would say) about the involved peers, necessarily one switch per stack on both ends.
Original Message:
Sent: Sep 19, 2022 08:34 PM
From: Ayoub Chabrouk
Subject: CX switch stack at the edge (design validation)

wanted to highlight one of the Switching Gurus here Mr.@parnassus for post visibility,
but please I am interested in everyone's input/contribution. 

Original Message:
Sent: Sep 19, 2022 03:08 PM
From: Ayoub Chabrouk
Subject: CX switch stack at the edge (design validation)

Hello Gurus,

I want your advice on a network design that I'm currently preparing,
The customer has an HQ and 2 branch offices in the same zone connected via single-mode fibers.
the plan is we are renewing switches, and we will have
HQ - 4x cx6300 stack switches
branch 1 - 2x cx6300 stack switches
branch 2 - 2x cx3600 stack switches

the customer wants to run easy connectivity between sites which is a simple L2, 5x VLANs extended from HQ to branches.
to move with the customer proposal - I will setup STP to manage the loop and have HQ as a root bridge,

from I'm personally thinking of instead, I'll do OSPF between all my stack switches and get rid of broadcast traffic headache, and complexity of managing loop/STP if any.

I want to know please what do you recommend here, a simple network L2 extended and setup STP, or do OSPF,  I'll need a detailed answer for each option what is the best choice =)



Thanks.

Got it @parnassus! so doing a correct STP setup should work properly as well, 
but if we put OSPF and L2 extended side by side, which one is recommended?

​and yes, they only have 1 single mode fiber between all sites and they want run an additional link soon. 

Original Message:
Sent: Sep 20, 2022 04:47 AM
From: Davide Poletto
Subject: CX switch stack at the edge (design validation)

Hi! looking at your network topology I don't believe that dealing with a properly configured STP (RSTP, as example) will cause you any issue, the additional (for redundancy) link between branch sites will be blocked (and you can work with the priority to keep it disabled from the STP standpoint preferring the direct links between each branch site and the HQ site). I mean I don't see any particular overhead or complexity once you have defined the STP topology (HQ stack will be STP Root) and properly configured downlinks to stacks placed at branch sites. I personally would be more worried about the single links between HQ and branch sites (If I understood the map correctly) since a single link doesn't fit well when you're dealing with stacks (VSF deployed on ArubaOS-CX in this particular case), I mean the redundancy is absent and there is a strong dependency (full I would say) about the involved peers, necessarily one switch per stack on both ends.
Original Message:
Sent: Sep 19, 2022 08:34 PM
From: Ayoub Chabrouk
Subject: CX switch stack at the edge (design validation)

wanted to highlight one of the Switching Gurus here Mr.@parnassus for post visibility,
but please I am interested in everyone's input/contribution. 

Original Message:
Sent: Sep 19, 2022 03:08 PM
From: Ayoub Chabrouk
Subject: CX switch stack at the edge (design validation)

Hello Gurus,

I want your advice on a network design that I'm currently preparing,
The customer has an HQ and 2 branch offices in the same zone connected via single-mode fibers.
the plan is we are renewing switches, and we will have
HQ - 4x cx6300 stack switches
branch 1 - 2x cx6300 stack switches
branch 2 - 2x cx3600 stack switches

the customer wants to run easy connectivity between sites which is a simple L2, 5x VLANs extended from HQ to branches.
to move with the customer proposal - I will setup STP to manage the loop and have HQ as a root bridge,

from I'm personally thinking of instead, I'll do OSPF between all my stack switches and get rid of broadcast traffic headache, and complexity of managing loop/STP if any.

I want to know please what do you recommend here, a simple network L2 extended and setup STP, or do OSPF,  I'll need a detailed answer for each option what is the best choice =)



Thanks.

I haven't an answer, it really depends about what approach fits better with your networking requirements, topology characteristics, administration know-how and expected troubleshooting/maintenance efforts.

Please consult this page for some Validated Reference Designs officially provided by Aruba (DC versus Campus scenarios, design and deployment guides for each scenario).