High availability

High availability configurations

The HP 10GbE switches offer flexibility in implementing redundant configurations. This section discusses the Active-Active configuration.

Active-Active configuration

The following figure shows an example configuration, where two switches are used as VRRP routers in an active-active configuration. In this configuration, both switches respond to packets.

Figure 27 Active-Active high availability configuration

Although this example shows only two switches, there is no limit on the number of switches used in a redundant configuration. It is possible to implement an active-active configuration across all the VRRP-capable switches in a LAN.

Each VRRP-capable switch in an active-active configuration is autonomous. Switches in a virtual router need not be identically configured.

In the scenario illustrated in the figure, traffic destined for IP address 10.0.1.1 is forwarded through the Layer 2 switch at the top of the drawing, and ingresses Switch A on port 20. Return traffic uses default gateway 1 (192.168.1.1). If the link between Switch A and the Layer 2 switch fails, Switch B becomes the Master because it has a higher priority. Traffic is forwarded to Switch B. Return traffic uses default gateway 2 (192.168.2.1), and is forwarded through the Layer 2 switch at the bottom of the drawing.

To implement the active-active example, perform the following switch configuration.

Task 1: Configure Switch A

1. Configure ports.

/cfg/l2/vlan 10

(Select VLAN

10)

>> VLAN 10# ena

(Enable VLAN

10)

>> VLAN 10# add 20

(Add port 20

to VLAN 10)

>> VLAN 10# ..

 

 

>> Layer 2# vlan 20

(Select VLAN

20)

>> VLAN 20# ena

(Enable VLAN

20)

>> VLAN 20# add 21

(Add port 21

to VLAN 20)

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