How-To: Init HPE FF5700 FlexFabric Switches

Left alone by some consultants, which charged a lot and did not accomplish to much, I ended up configuring FF5700 felx fabric switches myself. Some of the insights, other posts will follow.

To start with the basic initialization settings, configuring management access and doing initial firmware maintenance. After unpacking the switch and mounting fans and power supplies connect through the serial console – although there is dhcp client running on the switch which probably allows you to gain management access over the network. Remember there is a Gigabit- Ethernet- Port on the backside of the switch, dedicated for management access only. The console port is adjacent. Default serial settings are 9600/n/1/n as with any other HPE switch.

After the boot procedure press enter and you have access to the switch. Elevate your access level to configuration mode with:

system-view

To start with I actually disable the DHCP client and activate LLDP for further use.

undo dhcp enable
lldp global enable

After that prepare the desired VLANs according to whatever you later use. I strictly recommend leaving the default VLAN untouched, leaving the Primary VLAN ID on 1 and transport that untagged on any switch to switch link, but remove all access and server Continue reading

EtherConnect Caveats 2

Letztes Post über EtherConnect war ja recht begeistert und der wesentliche Haken waren die Speed- Duplex Settings an die ich mich bei meiner zweiten EtherConnect Leitung besser mal erinnert hätte.

Erinnert habe ich mich allerdings an einen Fehler, der etwas später zu geschlagen hatte. Nach der anfänglichen Euphorie traten doch immer wieder nicht geahnte Netzwerk Performance Themen auf die sich auch zunächst nicht wirklich erklären ließen.

Bis dann im Logging auffiel dass sporadische Spanning Tree Root changes auftauchten. Wichtig! EtherConnect ist transparentes Layer 2 Ethernet zwischen entfernten Standorten Continue reading