The Packet Wizard : Migrating from Cisco 6500 to Ruckus ICX

Just a quick post this week, I have been busy migrating from Cisco 6500 to Ruckus ICX. Here are some before and after photos and a video of the all important turn off. The main thing I learned in this migration is to chose your ports that are different, do Trunk Ports, Wireless, Printers, anything that is unique or requires a slightly different configuration do them first, then the regular desktop/user ports are just easy swaps.

The before picture we had already started to move the patch panels.

Listen to that power noise drop when it turns off. Turning off Cisco 6500 after Migration

Arista : MLAG Setup


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I have recently been setting up some Arista switches for a network refresh at our Boston site.

MLAG is short for Multi Chassis Link Aggregation and it allows more than 1 switch usually 2, to act like one logical switch which can allow you to just manage one switch instead of multiple. It also helps with redundancy and diversify paths. Its an awesome technology.  Here is the basic MLAG Topology:

1. Create Port Channel For Peer Links

I am using 2 Arista DCS-7150S-24-R switches with 2 10Gb Ethernet as our MLAG peer links. On each switch we will create a port channel 1000

 tpwsw1# config t
 tpwsw1(conf)#interface e23-24
 tpwsw1(config-if-Et23-24)# channel-group 1000 mode active
 tpwsw1(config-if-Et23-24)# interface port-channel 1000
 tpwsw1(config-if-Po1000)# switchport mode trunk

 

2. Create a VLAN for Peer MLAG Communication

You need to create a separate VLAN for MLAG communication and assign it the mlag-peer trunk group and disable spanning-tree on the VLAN. This step is done on both switches.

 tpwsw1(conf)#vlan 4094
 tpwsw1(config-vlan-4094)# trunk group mlag-peer
 tpwsw1(config-vlan-4094)# interface port-channel 1000
 tpwsw1(config-if-Po1000)# switchport trunk group mlag-peer
 tpwsw1(config-if-Po1000)# exit
 tpwsw1(conf)#no spanning-tree vlan 4094

 

 tpwsw2(conf)#vlan 4094
 tpwsw2(config-vlan-4094)# trunk group mlag-peer
 tpwsw2(config-vlan-4094)# interface port-channel 1000
 tpwsw2(config-if-Po1000)# switchport trunk group mlag-peer
 tpwsw2(config-if-Po1000)# exit
 tpwsw2(conf)#no spanning-tree vlan 4094

 

3. Set an IP on each Switch
On VLAN 4094 that was created above, we need to assign it an IP so each switch can communicate over layer 3 with each other.

 

tpwsw1(conf)#int vlan 4094
tpwsw1(config-if-Vl4094)# ip address 1.1.1.1/30

 

tpwsw2(conf)#int vlan 4094
tpwsw2(config-if-Vl4094)# ip address 1.1.1.2/30

***Send some pings to confirm basic connectivity

 

4. Configure MLAG peering for each switch

 tpwsw1(config)#mlag
 tpwsw1(config-mlag)#local-interface vlan 4094
 tpwsw1(config-mlag)#peer-address 1.1.1.2
 tpwsw1(config-mlag)#peer-link port-channel 1000
 tpwsw1(config-mlag)#domain-id mlagDOMAIN

 

 

 tpwsw2(config)#mlag
 tpwsw2(config-mlag)#local-interface vlan 4094
 tpwsw2(config-mlag)#peer-address 1.1.1.1
 tpwsw2(config-mlag)#peer-link port-channel 1000
 tpwsw2(config-mlag)#domain-id mlagDOMAIN

 

 

5. Verify MLAG Domain
On each switch, do a #show mlag to see if MLAG is up and running and you can confirm this by seeing State:Active and peer-link status: UP and locl-int status:UP

tpwsw1(config-mlag)#show mlag
MLAG Configuration:
domain-id : mlagDOMAIN
local-interface : Vlan4094
peer-address : 1.1.1.2
peer-link : Port-Channel1000
MLAG Status:
state : Active
negotiation status : Connected
peer-link status : Up
local-int status : Up
system-id : 02:1c:73:1e:97:dc
MLAG Ports:
Disabled : 0
Configured : 0
Inactive : 0
Active-partial : 0
Active-full : 0

 

 

tpwsw2(config-mlag)#show mlag
MLAG Configuration:
domain-id : mlagDOMAIN
local-interface : Vlan4094
peer-address : 1.1.1.1
peer-link : Port-Channel1000
MLAG Status:
state : Active
negotiation status : Connected
peer-link status : Up
local-int status : Up
system-id : 02:1c:73:1e:97:dc
MLAG Ports:
Disabled : 0
Configured : 0
Inactive : 0
Active-partial : 0
Active-full : 0

 

You can read more about MLAG here – https://www.arista.com/en/products/multi-chassis-link-aggregation-mlag

A great book to read about Arista is called Arista Warrior. I loved it. You can buy it here:

Ruckus : ICX Add Unit to Existing Stack

Continuing my theme from last week with the Ruckus ICX Switches. Here is how to add a switch to a stack hot.

Show existing Stack

#Stack secure-setup

Which will discover the new device. Election will run and reboot the newly Stacked Units.

#show stack

‘Wr mem’ on the master switch

 

Ruckus : ICX Initial Stacking Configuration

As you may know Brocade ICX switching line was purchased by Ruckus Networks. I have been messing with the Ruckus ICX 7250. Here is the steps to stack them using their Twin-AX cables.

Firstly stacking ICX switches has to be done on 10G Ports, so firstly you have to verify you have the correct license for those ports with the command:

# show license

As you can see from the output there 2 licensed 10G ports and that is the minimum you need to stack.

Doing a ‘show run’ confirms that 1/2/1 and 1/2/3 are set to 10G because they DO NOT show up in show run.

 

Once the 10G ports have been confirmed you can stack them. Here is how.

I have included a link where you can see the cost or purchase these devices:

Here is a picture of a Twin-AX Cable

I have included a link where you can see the cost or purchase these devices:

Once the Cables are connected you only have to enable stacking on one switch

Now search for the other devices connected to the stack and confirm you want them part of the election process, then all the non master switches will reboot.

Once the members have rebooted you can verify the stack us up and also shows the connections between the stack ports

Don’t forget to Save

#wr mem