ERS 8300 and LACP with HP blade servers

[seikyo]

All,

Just a little issue I'm hoping someone else has run into.

Using an ERS 8300, 4.1.1.0, we're trying to get this blade server to run in an active standby mode. When we get the system connected to the network one of the four links in the group become active and the rest become standby. We were told to use LACP. However when we enable LACP globally and at the port level, my ports on the HP blade server go immediatly to standby, while my 8300 is trying to sync the LACP heartbeats together. I've matched everything on the partner end for the ports, but it still does not sync up. But when I disable LACP, it goes back to the one NIC becomes active and the rest standby.

Thanks,

Seikyo

[Michael McNamara]

I'm not exactly clear on whether you're using an HP enclosure with an Interconnect switch (HP GbE2c, HP Flex Virtual Connect, Cisco 3120) or whether you are physically connecting the 4 NICs of the blade server (assuming you have the RJ-45 fan out module in the enclosure) directly to the ERS 8300.

Cheers!

[seikyo]

I'm using an HP enclosure with an interconnect switch HP gbe2c, I believe. I'll double check my settings on the HP box itself to make sure it's that specifically.

Thanks.

[Michael McNamara]

I know the HP GbE2c very well.

Have a look at this blog post, hopefully it will provide some clues for you.

http://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/2009/08/lacp-configuration-examples-part-3/

Good Luck!

[seikyo]

UPDATE: Fixed - Here's how you get LACP to work with the 8300.

The configuration is simple, for a base line.

Configure your ports and vlans as you would normally (for multiple vlans enable tagging on the port level)

config ethernet 1/1-1/2,2/1-2/2 perform-tagging enable
config ethernet 1/1-1/2,2/1-2/2 lacp key 10
config ethernet 1/1-1/2,2/1-2/2 lacp aggregate true
config ehternet 1/1-1/2,2/1-2/2 lacp enable

config vlan 2 create byport 1
config vlan 2 ports add 1/1-1/2,2/1-2/2 member portmember

Configure your mlt group

config mlt 5 create
config mlt 5 lacp key 10
config mlt 5 lacp enable


On the HP side, because the new HP blade servers don't require the configuration to be done on the CLI, you'll need to go into the virtual lan set configuration, add a multiple networks configuration for the port. In the drop down select your vlan network set (I'll look at the exact wording here and edit the post), and uncheck anything that's Untagged. Select all the networks you want the ports to accept. Click ok and you should be set.

Thanks for the help and information.

[Michael McNamara]

Thanks for posting the follow-up! I'm sure the information will come in handy to a lot of folks that are sure to follow you.

Good Luck!