Stacking switches Part - II (HP/Aruba VSF - Virtual Switching Framework)


HP also produces another line of switches which are called procurve switches. After HP's acquisition of Aruba Networks, those procurve switches are marketed as Aruba switches. Some of the Aruba switches support stacking. And it is called: VSF - Virtual Switching Framework. Again, I will not cover the stacking architecture, I will show only how to configure a VSF stacking between two Aruba 2530F series switches.

Let's define our network constraints; the example has following characteristics -

  • The stack is consisting of two (2) Aruba 2350F series switches of same model and software version.
  • In each switch two (2) 10G ethernet ports are used for stacking purposes.
  • The stacking ports in the switches can be either cross connected or straight through connected in ring topology. In VSF, how switches are connected with each other does not matter.

The switches are connected as the diagram below - 
Fig 01 - Aruba VSF with 2 switches
VSF allows stacking by using normal ethernet network ports, no special stacking ports are required. We have selected 2 ten gigabit ethernet ports (port 27 and port 28) and connected them straight through. So, we will have a back plane capacity of 20 gigabits for inter-switch communication.

SW-U01 will be the master switch and SW-U02 will be the standby switch.

Now we can start configuring the switches.

Let's configure our master switch which is SW-U01 first - 


SW-U01 (master) configuration commands

Administratively shut down the ports that are used for stacking.

SW-U01(config)#interface ethernet 27,28
SW-U01(eth-27-28)#disable

By default every switch has a member id of 1. Our master switch will have member id of 1. So, no renumbering of id is required.

Set the VSF priority of the switch to highest, so that it becomes master when the stack is formed. Available priority values are 1 - 255, where highest values are preferred while determining the master switch in a VSF stack.

SW-U01(config)#vsf member 1 priority 255

Now comes the interesting part and we need be careful in this step otherwise we need to reset the switch to factory default and start over again. We have decided that we will be using 2 physical switch ports (ethernet 27 and 28) for stacking. We need to create a virtual port (in VSF terminology it is called link") assign all the physical ports under this single virtual link. The thing to remember here is that between two switches there will be only one virtual link and all the physical ports which are connected between those two switches will be assigned to this single virtual link. So, do not create a virtual link port each switch port participate in stacking. Enough talking, let's look at the configuration commands -

SW-U01(config)#vsf member 1 link 1 27
SW-U01(config)#vsf member 1 link 1 28
(where 1 is the link id and 27,28 is the switch interface number/name)

And if we do it like below, it is wrong (creating two VSF links between same two switches) - 

SW-U01(config)#vsf member 1 link 1 27
SW-U01(config)#vsf member 1 link 2 28

Now we will enable the previously disabled switch ports and save the configuration.

SW-U01(config)#interface ethernet 27,28
SW-U01(eth-27-28)#enable
SW-U01(eth-27-28)#exit
SW-U01(config)#save

Now the most important command, activation of the VSF stacking feature. After this command the switch will reboot and try to from the stack actively. We need to chose a domain id for our stack, we can chose an arbitrary number. in our case we have chose number 5. Important thing is that domain id needs to be the same in both switches. 

SW-U01(config)#vsf enable domain 5


SW-U02 (standby) configuration commands

Administratively shut down the ports that are used for stacking.

SW-U02(config)#interface ethernet 27,28
SW-U02(eth-27-28)#disable

We will assign member id number 2 to the standby switch. By default it has a member id of 1. In VSF there is no renumber command available. Then how can we renumber it!!!

We will just use number 2 when we issue the VSF commands and by this the switch realizes that it we are identifying it by a member id of 2.

Set the VSF priority of the switch to lower than the master switch, so that it never becomes the master switch when the stack is formed. 

SW-U02(config)#vsf member 2 priority 100

(Look we are configuring the VSF stack by using the member id of 2!!!)

Now we will create the single VSF link using two physical switch ports same as earlier - 

SW-U02(config)#vsf member 2 link 1 27
SW-U02(config)#vsf member 2 link 1 28

Now we will enable the previously disabled switch ports and save the configuration.

SW-U02(config)#interface ethernet 27,28
SW-U02(eth-27-28)#enable
SW-U02(eth-27-28)#exit
SW-U02(config)#save

After that we activate the stack using the same domain id that was used in master switch and the switch will reboot. So, do not forget to save your configuration before issuing this command.

SW-U02(config)#vsf enable domain 5


Verifying VSF configuration

What VSF does is that it makes a single virtual switch from those 2 physically connected switches and provides more ports and redundancy.  

The easiest way to verify that a stack is formed is to type the "show interface status" command, which groups together each switch interfaces with their corresponding member id. If interfaces from both switches are present that means the stack is formed.

SW-STK# sh int status 

  Port     Name    Status  
  -------- ---------- ------- 
  1/1                     Down
  1/2                     Down
  1/3                     Down
  2/1                     Down
  2/2                     Down
  2/3                     Down

Now to have a look at the VSF information - 

SW-STK# sh vsf 

 VSF Domain ID    : 5                                                 
 MAC Address      : 548028-5c1234    
 VSF Topology     : Chain                                   
 VSF Status       : Active                                  
 Uptime           : 5m   
 VSF MAD          : None                                    
 VSF Port Speed   : 10G                                     
 Software Version : WC.16.05.0002

 Mbr                                                                            

 ID  MAC Address       Model                                 Pri Status         
 --- ----------------- ------------------------------------- --- ---------------
  1  548028-5c1235     Aruba 2930F-24G-PoE     255 Commander      
  2  548028-5c1236     Aruba 2930F-24G-PoE     250 Standby        

To have a detailed information about the stack we can also type the commands below - 

SW-STK# sh vsf link detail 

 VSF Member: 1     Link: 1

 Port     State                                                             
 -------- ------------
 1/27     Up: Connected to port 2/27                                        
 1/28     Up: Connected to port 2/28                                        

 VSF Member: 2     Link: 1

 Port     State                                                             
 -------- ------------
 2/27     Up: Connected to port 1/27                                        
 2/28     Up: Connected to port 1/28


SW-STK# sh vsf topology                
 VSF member's interconnection with links: 

 Stby     Cmdr     
 +---+    +---+   
 | 2 |1==1| 1 |
 +---+    +---+  

We can also verify the back plane stacking capacity is indeed 20G, by using command -

SW-STK# sh vsf link utilization 

 VSF Link Utilization:

                       Link           Average Link
 Member  Link  Bandwidth  Utilization %
                           Rx        Tx
 ------  ----  ---------  -----     -----
 1       1     20G        0         0
 2       1     20G        0         0


Further reading and reference

Location: Sundsvall, Sweden

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