Comware

I'm new to HP networking, having had some experience with Cisco networking.

Is there an analog to a vtp server in HP (I'm going to be working with a bunch of 5300s and 2848s)?

Is a "tagged" port on an hp switch the same as a port set with "switchport mode trunk" on a cisco?

I'm under the impression that if I set a port on a HP switch to "tagged", I also have to set the vlans that it will participate in, as opposed to the cisco "switchport mode trunk", which allows all vlans out that port. True?

Thanks!

Jeff

1. Look for GVRP.

2. Yes.

3. My experience as well when not using GVRP. Take a look at http://www.hp.com/rnd/support/config_examples/gvrp_use.pdf

And one other important thing to remember - HP switches do not have per VLAN spanning tree - be cautious if you are used to that.

Thank you for responding!

"And one other important thing to remember - HP switches do not have per VLAN spanning tree - be cautious if you are used to that."

I'm probably used to that since I'm not sure what it means. Can you explain? I understand what STP does in general (prevent network loops), but not per VLAN.

Let's say you have two Cisco switches (A and B). On those two switches you have defined two VLANs - 100 and 200.

You might then choose to have two physical links between those two switches.

Something like: A=B

One link will belong to VLAN 100.
The other link will belong to VLAN 200.

You might configure this like

interface FastEthernet1
switchport mode access vlan 100

interface FastEthernet2
switchport mode access vlan 200

Since each VLAN has its own spanning tree instance, this will work.

If you do the same thing on HP, one of the links will block unless you use multiple spanning tree (MST).

Take a look at

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/147.html

Regnar

Great. Thanks for the explanation. I didn't recognize per vlan spanning tree, but I recognize pvst as I've seen it in switch configs in the past and haven't had any reason to change it.

Thank you!

Jeff