Lost in Translation? Converting your Cisco or HP Networking knowledge from one to the other
Posted on February 11, 2011 by buu8 Comments
In my first real network related job, I worked exclusively with Cisco. It was great. With my fresh CCNA and a Senior Network Architect who was willing to mentor me, I was on my way to becoming a real full fledged Cisco Networking Engineer. I got to play with Cisco routers across the globe, EIGRP, Cisco switches from CatOS to IOS, 2960, 3750, 4500 and 6500, Port-Channels, HSRP, PVST+ and even a sprinkling of Cisco Call Manager. Once I learned this kind of knowledge and ramped up more Cisco certifications, I felt that my career would never be in danger. Because everyone uses Cisco and you need to employ people who have memorized command lines in order to operate them, right?
Well, when I left that job my world was turned upside down. I ended up joining a reseller who sold /some/ Cisco but the bread and butter was HP ProCurve. How could this be? People really bought networking products from other vendors? Yes, people do. A lot of people do.
The transition was easy. The command line took only a couple minutes to get myself used to and I was off to the races. Building off my existing knowledge, I could apply everything I knew from protocols and standards to foundational design theory. I quickly understood that Cisco wasn’t the only major player in my market space. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Cisco. I still work with it and in some cases it’s the right fit. But in most cases, HP is my go-to networking vendor.
I also still maintain Cisco certifications – a CCNP, CCDA as well as a plethora of various Partner specific certifications to keep my employer happy. They have a great education program, there’s no doubting that. My knowledge foundation comes from it. HP’s education program is pretty good too and always improving – it’s one to keep an eye on. I carry an HP ASE myself. Career wise, if you really know what you’re doing, you shouldn’t have to worry about the letters that follow your name – those alone aren’t going to get your very far if your knowledge is challenged.
Now having gotten that ramble out of the way, I’d like to take you through the basic differences between configuring the two vendors switches.
I’ll compare Cisco’s IOS and the OS found in HP E-Series (aka ProCurve). I’ll save Nexus vs HP A-Series for a future post.
I will refer to Cisco IOS as IOS and HP E-Series as HP’s for the remainder of this post.
So let’s start with some basic ideas.
How to Login
IOS:
switch> enable
switch# configure terminal (conf t)
switch(config)#
HP:
switch# conf t //because you will be in privileged mode by default
switch(config)#
Basic Setup
IOS:
switch(config)# hostname SW1
SW1(config)# enable secret 0 p@ssw0rd
SW1(config)# clock set 12:00 Feb 10 2011
HP:
switch(config)# hostname SW1
SW1(config)# password all //you will be prompted for an Operator and Manager password, set them the same to basically negate the Operator user
SW1(config)# clock set 02/10/2011
SW1(config)# clock set 12:00
Creating a VLAN, Assign an IP and Setting a Default Gateway
IOS:
SW1(config)# int vlan 100
SW1(vlan-100)# ip address 10.1.100.254 255.255.255.0
SW1(vlan-100)# exit
SW1(config)# ip default-gateway 10.1.100.1
HP:
SW1(config)# int vlan 100
SW1(vlan-100)# ip address 10.1.100.254/24 //255.255.255.0 will also work but the /24 is a handy short cut
SW1(vlan-100)# exit
SW1(config)# ip default-gateway 10.1.100.1
Enabling Layer 3 Routing and Setting a Layer 3 Default Route
IOS:
SW1(config)# ip routing
SW1(config)# ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.1.100.1
HP:
SW1(config)# ip routing
SW1(config)# ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.1.100.1
So far so good right? So here come the curve balls, but they’re easy to navigate.
Assigning VLANs
In IOS, you assign VLANs to ports and in HP you assign ports to VLANs. Let’s create an additional VLAN and configure fictitious ports 1-12 on VLAN 100 and 13-24 on VLAN 200.
IOS:
SW1(config)# int vlan 200
SW1(vlan-200)# ip address 10.1.200.254 255.255.255.0
SW1(vlan-200)# exit
SW1(config)# int range fa1-12
SW1(int-range)# switchport access vlan 100
SW1(int-range)# int range fa13-24
SW1(int-range)# switchport access vlan 200
HP:
SW1(config)# vlan 200
SW1(vlan-200)# ip address 10.1.200.254/24 //once again using the short cut
SW1(vlan-200)# exit
SW1(config)# vlan 100
SW1(vlan-100)# untag 1-12
SW1(vlan-100)# vlan 200
SW1(vlan-200)# untag 13-24
So let’s review that. In HP, you create an “access port” by “untagging”? Well, ya, an access port is sending frames without a dot1q tag on it, understood by default servers, PCs, printers, etc. So HP quite literally has you specify that you are sending frames untagged.
Link Aggregation
Moving on, let’s say we want to aggregate ports 23 and 24 into an aggregated link.
IOS:
SW1(config)# int range fa23-24
SW1(int-range)# channel-group 1 on
//a virtual interface is now created called “Port-Channel 1″ and instead of configuring ports 23 and 24 individually, you will now configure Port-Channel 1 as you would any other port
HP:
SW1(config)# trunk trk1 23-24
//a virtual interface is also created here called Trk1 and you will also be applying any any configuration to Trk1 now and not 23 or 24 individually, in fact HP will remove it from the config all together
VLAN Trunking
The last thing I wanted to cover was VLAN Trunking, which is carrying multiple VLANs on a single link. Used for connecting switches that have several VLANs, Firewalls, Routers or virtualization hosts. We’ll configure VLANs 100 and 200 to be carried across our newly created aggregated link.
IOS:
SW1(config)# int po1 //this is how you refer to Port-Channel 1
SW1(po1)# switchport mode trunk
SW1(po1)# switchport trunk allow vlan 100,200
HP:
SW1(config)# vlan 100
SW1(vlan-100)# tag trk1
SW1(vlan-100)# vlan 200
SW1(vlan-200)# tag trk1
I’ve created a quick chart of those last three points for your reference.
HP has come a long way, I’ve worked on some of their very old gear (because of ProCurve’s lifetime warranty they stay in production for a long time) and configuring the older stuff was easy with the menu system but using a command line is far more robust. CLI is great for backing up configs, running quick config scripts and quickly reviewing how the switch is configured.
Hopefully this post can be of help to you if you are considering HP or have just received your first one and are scratching your head for where to start.
Feel free to leave a comments!