HP Aruba VSF Configuration

Published on Jul 24, 2020
aruba hp networking vsf

Seeing as of late I have been having to re-jig some VSF setups for customers I’ve decided to write a small how to guide on setting up a VSF Stack across Aruba Switches.

This can be applied for expanding existing setups or replacing members.

What is VSF and what are the limitations?

HP Virtual Switching Framework (VSF) technology visualizes multiple physical devices into one virtual fabric which provides high availability due to significant reduction in recovery time simplified network design and management. Virtual Switching Framework (VSF) allows supported switches connected to each other through Ethernet connections (copper or fiber) to behave like a single chassis switch.

VSF restrictions / limitations

VSF is mutually exclusive with distributed trunking, mesh, and Q-in-Q.
Must be 10Gbps/1Gbps.
A VSF link can only comprise ports with the same speed; either all 10G or all 1G. A VSF port’s speed which does not match with the global port speed, will be in a down state. The command show vsf link detail will display an error message.
Maximum eight ports can be configured on one VSF link.
VSF ports must be directly connected and there should be no transit devices between members.
In a VSF virtual chassis, flow-control is not supported between ports on different chassis across VSF links.
A VSF stack downgrade is not allowed.

Step One – Pre-Config

This part of the guide is rather important and it will save you revisiting your switch config to figure out why for the 8th time your stack still isn’t stacking… Before we start make a note of the Model Number, It’s MAC Address and which SFP+ ports you intend to use for stacking.

For this example I will be using a Aruba 2930F (24 Port 4SFP+) & 2930F (48 Port 4SFP+)

We will also want to note down the firmware version (they both need to match) & ports we are going to allocate to be our Member Links.

Switch A
Aruba 2930F - JL255A - WC.16.03.0005
Mac Address: 089734-9aa5a0
Link 1 - 1/26
Link 2 - 1/25

Switch B
Aruba 2930F - JL254A - WC.16.03.0005
Mac Address: 9020c2-480ac0
Link 1 - 1/49
Link 2 - 1/51

Step Two – Setting up the Commander

Without even powering up the 2nd member we can pre-configure it on our commander member. A Commander is HP/Aruba slang for what we used to call Master. It’s the member that’s currently in-charge of the stack. This role can move around the stack based on which members are removed. It can also be biased towards a particular switch by adjusting it’s priority – The highest prioritized member will become the Commander.

Bring up a console session to your chosen switch.

Enter the configuration mode using the config command:

Switch A# config
Switch A(config)#

Let’s go ahead and enable VSF! The switch will reboot and add a few VSF lines to our config. One thing we need to define is a Domain ID. If you have multiple stacks you will want to make sure you use a different ID. If this is your first stack you can go ahead and use the ID of 1. The domain ID can be from 1 to 4294967296.

The command vsf enable causes the switch to reboot once and form the fabric. Upon reboot the switch comes up in the “VSF enabled” mode. Port numbers are prefixed with member numbers, such as “1/1”. The configuration on the switch becoming Commander will be retained, but any pre-existing configuration on other switches will be over-written.

Switch A(config)# vsf enable domain 1

Once the switch has rebooted we can check VSF is enabled by running show vsf

Switch A(vsf)# show vsf
VSF Domain ID : 1
MAC Address : 089734-9aa5a3
VSF Topology : Chain
VSF Status : Not Active
Uptime : 0d 0h 6m
VSF MAD : None
VSF Port Speed : 10G
Software Version : WC.16.07.0003
Mbr
ID MAC Address Model Pri Status

Now we have confirmed VSF is enabled, lets take a look at our config again.

Switch A#: show config

You will notice at the top of the config we have a new VSF section. Yours should look similar to the following.

vsf
enable domain 1
member 1
type "JL255A" mac-address 089734-9aa5e0
priority 128
link 1 name "I-Link1_1"
link 2 name "I-Link1_2"
exit
port-speed 10g
exit

Now we need to allocate our interfaces we selected earlier.

Switch A(config)# vsf
Switch A(vsf)# member 1
Switch A(vsf member-1)# link 1 1/26
Switch A(vsf member-1)# link 2 1/25

Switch A is finally ready. Now time to add Switch B to the config…

Staying on Switch A we want to add a new member give it the model number, MAC address and allocate the ports.

Remember: We need to put the port numbers in as they would appear in the Stack.

Switch A(config)# vsf
Switch A(vsf)# member 2
Switch A(vsf)# type "JL254A" mac-address 9020c2-480ac0
Switch A(vsf member-2)# link 1 2/49
Switch A(vsf member-2)# link 2 2/51

At this stage don’t forget to save the config!

Switch A#: write mem

Switch A is complete so before we swap over to Switch B let’s go have a look at the show vfs again…

Switch A(vsf)# show vsf
VSF Domain ID : 1
MAC Address : 089734-9aa5a3
VSF Topology : Chain
VSF Status : Not Active
Uptime : 0d 0h 12m
VSF MAD : None
VSF Port Speed : 10G
Software Version : WC.16.07.0003
Mbr
ID MAC Address Model Pri Status

1 089734-9aa5a0 Aruba JL255A 2930F-24G-PoE+-4SFP+ … 128 Commander
2 9020c2-480ac0 Aruba JL254A 2930F-48G-4SFP+ Switch 128 Provisioned

We can now see Member 2 is provisioned but not online. So let’s change that…

Step Three – Setting up the second member

This step is pretty similar to step two. We essentially tell Switch B to enable VSF, it’ll do it’s reboot and come back with a blank config like Switch A.

Switch B# config
Switch B(config)#
Switch B(config)# vsf enable domain 1

Once the switch is back let’s assign those VSF interfaces we planed earlier. Note: In this config we need to provision the interfaces under the first member, don’t worry it will pickup the config from the commander once we join it!

Switch B(config)# vsf
Switch B(vsf)# member 1
Switch B(vsf)# type "JL254A" mac-address 9020c2-480ac0
Switch B(vsf member-2)# link 1 1/49
Switch B(vsf member-2)# link 2 1/51

Again save the config and get ready to reboot. At this stage you can prepare your SFP+ cables to plug in.

When ready reboot the switch and plug those cables in.

Switch B(config)# write mem
Switch B(config)# reboot

Step Four – Final Checks

One all booted back up, you should be able to run the show vsf command and the output should look similar to the below.

Switch A(vsf)# show vsf
VSF Domain ID : 1
MAC Address : 089734-9aa5a3
VSF Topology : Ring
VSF Status : Active
Uptime : 0d 0h 01m
VSF MAD : None
VSF Port Speed : 10G
Software Version : WC.16.07.0003
Mbr
ID MAC Address Model Pri Status

1 089734-9aa5a0 Aruba JL255A 2930F-24G-PoE+-4SFP+ … 128 Commander
2 9020c2-480ac0 Aruba JL254A 2930F-48G-4SFP+ Switch 128 Member

A quick show interface brief will also come back with the full ports list from both 1/# & 2/#.

You can repeat Steps 2 & 3 for as many switches that need to be added into the stack.