Before You Start; Valid Configurations - Juniper EX4300 Hardware Manual

EX4300 Switch Hardware Guide

Before You Start

Valid Configurations

190
Cabling QFX3600 Switches in a QFX Virtual Chassis on page 192
Cabling a Mixed QFX Virtual Chassis on page 193
You configure a QFX Series Virtual Chassis by configuring SFP+ or QSFP+ interfaces into
Virtual Chassis ports (VCPs). VCPs connect switches together to form a Virtual Chassis,
and are responsible for passing all data and control traffic between member switches
in the Virtual Chassis. All non-channelized QSFP+ uplink interfaces on standalone
QFX5100 switches can be configured into VCPs. All fixed SFP+ interfaces on
QFX5100-96S switches can also be configured into VCPs.
The advantages of connecting multiple switches into a Virtual Chassis include
better-managed bandwidth at a network layer, simplified configuration and maintenance
because multiple devices can be managed as a single device, increased fault tolerance
and high availability (HA) because a Virtual Chassis can remain active and network traffic
can be redirected to other member switches when a single member switch fails, and a
flatter, simplified Layer 2 network topology that minimizes or eliminates the need for
loop prevention protocols such as Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).
You can increase VCP bandwidth between member switches by configuring multiple
interfaces between the same two switches into VCPs. When multiple VCPs are
interconnecting the same two member switches, a Link Aggregation Group (LAG) bundle
is automatically formed when the VCPs are on interfaces supporting identical speeds.
For instance, if you have two 40-Gigabit QSFP+ interfaces configured as VCPs between
member switches, a LAG with two member links with 80Gbps of total bandwidth is
formed. 10-Gigabit SFP+ and 40-Gigabit QSFP+ interfaces configured as VCPs cannot
be members of the same LAG, however. The Virtual Chassis feature is not applicable to
QFX devices in a QFabric.
Virtual Chassis can be installed in a single rack, multiple racks, or in wire closets.
Valid configurations are:
All QFX5100 members–in a ring topology this is Virtual Chassis; in a spine and leaf
topology this is a Virtual Chassis Fabric (VCF). For a cabling example of spine and leaf,
see Connecting a QFX5100 Device in a Virtual Chassis Fabric.
All QFX3600 members
All QFX3500 members
A mixture of QFX3600 and QFX3500 members
A mixture of QFX5100, QFX3600, and QFX3500 members–use the QFX5100 switches
as master and backup whenever possible.
A mixture of QFX5100, QFX3600, QFX3500, and EX4300 members. EX4300 switches
as the master or backup is not supported; use QFX5100 switches in these roles
whenever possible.
Copyright © 2015, Juniper Networks, Inc.