Fabric SPB migration from Cisco core

[tfsnetman]

Hello,

I was wondering whether someone did migrate from a standard 802.1q tagged core like Cisco to a Fabric SPBM with VSP 7400 series and would like to share their lessons learned.

Currently:

Cisco 4500x cores -- X460G2-10GE4 (distribution / edge)

Future:

VSP 7000 -- X460G2-10GE4 (fabric attach)

Options I can think of:

1)

VSP 7400 --- Cisco 4500x

• not sure how to have 802.1q tagging between VSP 7400 and Cisco 4500x and SPBM at the same time
• Migrate all X460G2 from Cisco 4500x to VSP7400

2)

VSP 7400 --- x460G2-10GE4 --- Cisco 4500x

• the x460G2 would be a fabric attached client on the VSP7400 side and a standard 802.1q trunking client on the Cisco 4500x side.
• migrate all remaining X460G2s to the VSP7400 as fabric attached units

Your thoughts?

Thank you,

Klaus

[Miguel-Angel_RO]

Klaus,

802.1q tagging is a standard and is working for all brands as far as I know and certainly between Cisco and VSP.

I would go for scenario 1.

The attention points for such migration are:

• to be sure to control the spanning tree topology and be very careful if PVSTP is in use on the Cisco. The EXOS does support it but no the VSP.
• check if you use SRP or VRRP for the IP redundancy
  • If you use VRRP, the VSP can join the VRRP instances and by changing the priority you have a smooth transition of the L3 functions

Traditional steps are:

1. bridge VSP and Cisco core’s
2. configure all VLANs tagged between them
3. L2: migrate Edge switches from Cisco to VSP
   1. all the uplinks of switch one at the same time to avoid STP and/or loops issue
4. Migrate the L3 functions

Steps 3 and 4 can easily be swapped

Regards

Mig