Configure Distributed Trunking on HP Procurve and MEC on Cisco VSS

Distributed Trunking is the 'equivalent' of the vPC on the Cisco Nexus Series. It's a link aggregation technique which can be used even if the host is connected on 2 differents switchs. The following design has been built between 2 HP 5400 and 2 Cisco 4500 in VSS mode.

• Configuration on the Cisco Switch:

interface Port-channel20
 description TO-HP-DT
 switchport
 switchport mode trunk

!

interface TenGigabitEthernet1/5/4

 description TO-HP-DT-1

 switchport mode trunk

 channel-group 20 mode active

!

interface TenGigabitEthernet2/5/4

 description TO-HP-DT-2

 switchport mode trunk

 channel-group 20 mode active

• Configuration of the HP 1:
• Configure ISC

trunk B7,E8 trk10 lacp

switch-interconnect trk10
vlan xxx
 tagged trk10
vlan xxx
 tagged trk10
...

• Configure the keepalive 

interface D20
   name "Keep-Alive"
   exit

vlan 900

   name "VLAN900"

   untagged D20

   ip address 192.168.100.1 255.255.255.0

   exit

distributed-trunking peer-keepalive vlan 900

distributed-trunking peer-keepalive destination 192.168.100.2

• Configure the dt-lacp between the VSS and the HP:

trunk A1,B1 trk1 dt-lacp

• Configuration of the HP 2:
• Configure ISC

trunk B7,E8 trk10 lacp

switch-interconnect trk10
vlan xxx
 tagged trk10
vlan xxx
 tagged trk10
...

• Configure the keepalive 

interface D20
   name "Keep-Alive"
   exit

vlan 900

   name "VLAN900"

   untagged D20

   ip address 192.168.100.2 255.255.255.0

   exit

distributed-trunking peer-keepalive vlan 900

distributed-trunking peer-keepalive destination 192.168.100.1

• Configure the dt-lacp between the VSS and the HP:

trunk A1,B1 trk1 dt-lacp

• Validation:

HP-1# show switch-interconnect

Port         : Trk10

Status       : Up

Active VLANs : 1,100,200,300

HP-1# show distributed-trunking statistics peer-keepalive

DT peer-keepalive Status : Up

HP-1# show  distributed-trunking consistency-parameters trunk trk1

Allowed VLANs on Local : 1,100,200,300

Allowed VLANs on Peer  : 1,100,200,300

HP-1# show  lacp distributed

                             Distributed LACP

Local Port Status:

       LACP    Trunk   Port            LACP    Admin  Oper

  Port Enabled Group   Status  Partner Status  Key    Key

  ---- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------ ------

  A1   Active  Trk1    Up      Yes     Success 0      290

Remote Port Status:

          LACP      Trunk     Port                LACP      Oper

   Port   Enabled   Group     Status    Partner   Status    Key

   ----   -------   -------   -------   -------   -------   ------

   A1     Active    Trk1      Up        Yes       Success   20

C4510-VSS-Core#show  lacp 20 neighbor

Partner's information:

                  LACP port                        Admin  Oper   Port    Port

Port      Flags   Priority  Dev ID          Age    key    Key    Number  State

Te1/5/4   SA      0         40a8.f07b.a400   2s    0x0    0x0    0x271F  0x3D

Te2/5/4   SA      0         40a8.f07b.a400   4s    0x0    0x0    0x271A  0x3D

Some remarks:
- ISC is only supported in MST mode