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cmangiarelli
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Trunking issues with HP BC Switches to Cisco Core

I've seen a couple of topics on this already posted, some from days past, but I'm unable to get my systems to work the way I prefer.  Let me start out by saying that I'm not a network genius, but I am very familiar with VMware itself.  In my past lives, I simply asked for an EtherChannel trunk of X# of VLANs and I tagged on the vSwitch.  However, due to the cost of Cisco gear, a new HP BladeCenter c3000 was purchased with GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet Blade Switches and a bunch of us here can't figure out the best way to configure them.  I'm hoping somebody here has experience in this realm.

Existing Configuration

     Cisco 6509  <=== dual 1Gbps Ethernet w/ LACP (active) ===> HP  GbE2c Blade Switch <=== Multiple VLAN Configs ===> Blade (i.e. Bay 5)

Problem

Every time a new VLAN is added to the trunk, we have to touch every single HP switch to add the VLAN manually.  Takes forever to push out new VLANs.  Also, it's expected we are getting aggregate throughput that I don't think is working without HP Trunk groups (according to my reading).  I could be wrong though.

Desire

Configure the HP switch so that it passes the entire trunk contents up to the ESXi host and only configure port groups / VLAN tags at the dvSwitch.  Thus whenever the trunk definition changes, all that is needed in ESX is to create the new dvPortGroup.  Also, they expect bandwidth aggregation among uplinks in the dvSwitch.

Is there any way to attain this configuration?  Hosts are running ESXi 4.1.

P.S. I'm keeping it simple right now, ultimately I may extend this to 10G ethernet and four or more uplinks per dvSwitch.

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biokovo
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Hi.

We also have HP c3000/c7000 with HP GbE2c switches connected to Cisco switches.

Every new VLAN I create on Cisco, I have to create that VLAN on HP switches.

I am doubt it is possible to do it only once. To do this, HP switches must be member of Cisco VTP domain but as I know HP does not support Cisco's proprietary VTP. HP does support a similar protocol called GARP.

Regards,

Ante

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cmangiarelli
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Bueller?

Anybody running ESXi, HP network gear, and trunking?

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iw123
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Could be wrong, as I've only briefly used HP switches but in the cisco world normally any switch in the traffic path will have to be aware of the vlan tags, there for the vlans would have to be created on the HP switches. With cisco this can be accomplished using VTP or even scripting the vlan additions. Of the top of my head, to do a pass though you would need some kind of tunneling.

Is this using HP virtual connect by the way? If so can't you just create the vlans using the web interface, and they'll apply to all HP switches in the chassis?

Regards,

Ian

*Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers
biokovo
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Hi.

We also have HP c3000/c7000 with HP GbE2c switches connected to Cisco switches.

Every new VLAN I create on Cisco, I have to create that VLAN on HP switches.

I am doubt it is possible to do it only once. To do this, HP switches must be member of Cisco VTP domain but as I know HP does not support Cisco's proprietary VTP. HP does support a similar protocol called GARP.

Regards,

Ante

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iw123
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Yeah, VTP is out of the question, but if these are virtual connect switches I think theres a single management point for configuring multiple switches so that you configure the blade chassis as a whole.

*Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers
cmangiarelli
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Unfortunately, that's what I figured.  Since these are not virtual connect switches, I guess I am at a loss to easily manage them.  There is little desire to learn to script management for these.  As the virtual connect switch prices are on par with Cisco, going forward we will be strongly recommending the purchase of cisco switches for these chassis; the cost savings were not worth the time and effort to support this existing configuration.

Thanks for at least confirming my thoughts on this so I don't have to spend oodles of time reading cryptic documentation to find a way around this.

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