Wired Intelligent Edge

And another VSX related question.

I configured keepalive or use of the out-of-band management port.
Ping works fine.

But VSX keepalive status is still init...

vsx
    inter-switch-link lag 1
    role primary
    keepalive peer 172.18.12.5 source 172.18.12.4 vrf mgmt
    vsx-sync aaa internal-vlan-range l2-vlan-mac-cfg-mode mclag-interfaces mgmd-global qos-global snmp stp-global time vsx-global

8325-demo-01# ping 172.18.12.5 source 172.18.12.4 vrf mgmt
PING 172.18.12.5 (172.18.12.5) from 172.18.12.4 : 100(128) bytes of data.
108 bytes from 172.18.12.5: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.170 ms
108 bytes from 172.18.12.5: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.166 ms
108 bytes from 172.18.12.5: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.139 ms
108 bytes from 172.18.12.5: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.195 ms
108 bytes from 172.18.12.5: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=0.163 ms

8325-demo-01# sho vsx status keepalive
Keepalive State           : Keepalive-Init
Last Established          :
Last Failed               :
Peer System Id            :
Peer Device Role          : secondary
​

8325-demo-02# sh run vsx
vsx
    inter-switch-link lag 1
    role secondary
    keepalive peer 172.18.12.4 source 172.18.12.5 vrf mgmt
    vsx-sync aaa internal-vlan-range l2-vlan-mac-cfg-mode mclag-interfaces mgmd-global qos-global snmp stp-global time vsx-global

8325-demo-02# ping 172.18.12.4 source 172.18.12.5 vrf mgmt
PING 172.18.12.4 (172.18.12.4) from 172.18.12.5 : 100(128) bytes of data.
108 bytes from 172.18.12.4: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.131 ms
108 bytes from 172.18.12.4: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.157 ms
108 bytes from 172.18.12.4: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.181 ms
108 bytes from 172.18.12.4: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.171 ms
108 bytes from 172.18.12.4: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=0.180 ms

8325-demo-02# sh vsx status keepalive
Keepalive State           : Keepalive-Init
Last Established          :
Last Failed               :
Peer System Id            :
Peer Device Role          : primary

Any Idea?

thanks and kind regards

Robert

keepalive peer 172.18.12.5 source 172.18.12.4 vrf mgmt​

seems to accept the mgmt (OoBM) as a possible VRF...I'm unsure it's really possible to use the OoBM interface to deploy the VSX Keepalive on ArubaOS-CX 10.4, 10.5 or even on 10.6 software.

I'm quite sure it wasn't supported on ArubaOS-CX 10.3 and also on 10.4: simply have a look at "VSX Configuration Best Practices for Aruba CX 6400, 8320, 8325, 8400 (March 2020 edition)" published during April 2020 referenced to ArubaOS-CX 10.4 specifically.

I could be wrong [*]...but I'm less sure about the availability of this feature on newer ArubaOS-CX 10.5 or ArubaOS-CX 10.6...the fact is that there are really no records of any usage example, restriction, recommendation or even a simple note on the official "ArubaOS-CX Virtual Switching Extension (VSX) Guide" (for ArubaOS-CX 10.5 and 10.6) about implementing VSX Keepalive over/through the OoBM interface.

All examples found on the above guides are using a dedicated VRF (but non related to mgmt) for Keepalive...as it was always suggested since the ArubaOS-CX 10.1 introduction.

[*] For sure I'll need to dig deeply about that.

Well. To implement it this way was my first suggestion. But that would mean I had to use an 1/10/25 or 40/100G Port for keepalive.

In spite we plan to connect 6 servers with 8 connections, so there is no 1/10/25G port left.

My plan was a dedicated OOBM network, and using OOBM port for keepalive to separate it from normal LAN traffic and switch outtage.

And on the new client switches 6300M with Aruba CX, the OOBM port is the only port to configure for VSF keepalive.

Strange that on one hand you must use OOBM port for keepalive and on other hand you can't use OOBM Port...

keepalive peer 172.18.12.5 source 172.18.12.4 vrf mgmt​

Any news for VSX keepalive over mgmt Port ?

Or should I put this to a new topic in innovation zone?

Update:
Link to new feature request in innovation zone:

Use of mgmt Port for VSX keepalive | Aruba Innovation Zone (arubanetworks.com)

It is now available (from 2 major releases !) with Aruba CX 10.10 

a video to explain this !

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3gjfg9nGrI