Replace VCS Principle Switch

[Russ]

Hi all,

Pretty new to Brocade Switching.

I’ve been given a project to replace both switches in a 2 switch VCS stack with higher capacity switches. The process to replace the non-principle switch looks pretty straight forward (although there are a couple of ‘got-ya!’). My query is about the principle switch replacement. I’ve done a bit of a search on this but couldn’t really find anything to answer my question. Is the process the same as this KB describes? https://extremeportal.force.com/ExtrArticleDetail?an=000061358 Do I need to fail-over the principle switch the the second node first? Are there any other things I need to be aware of when swapping out the principle?

Thanks all. 

[Truyen_Phan]

You can set the priority under the RB that you want to be the new prinicpal using command: 

• logical-chassis principal-priority (see page 904)

Then you can run ‘logical-chassis principal-switchover’ to force the failover. This command take a 1-2 mins to start. After a few mins, run ‘show vcs’ to confirm the new principal. 

https://documentation.extremenetworks.com/networkos/SW/73x/nos-730-command-reference.pdf

[Russ]

Wow that was quick thanks for your reply!

Because I’m so new to NOS, what’s the command to do the fail-over? I think I’d prefer to do a controlled fail-over of the principle first before disconnecting. 

Cheers. 

[Truyen_Phan · Accepted solution]

hi Russ,

Yes, the process is pretty much the same. Yes, you should do the fail-over the principal first. Then, you can proceed replacing as mentioned in the KB. 

If you don’t do the fail-over, when you take the principal switch offline, a new principal switch will be selected. Then, you can proceed replacing it using the sames mentioned in the KB.