Configuring an EX2300, EX3400, EX4100, EX4100-F, EX4300, or EX4400 Virtual Chassis

Note:

To configure a Virtual Chassis through Juniper Mist Wired Assurance, use the instructions in the following topics:

• Configure a Virtual Chassis Using EX2300, EX4650, or QFX5120 Switches

• Configure a Virtual Chassis Using EX3400, EX4100, EX4100-F, EX4300, EX4400, or EX4600 Switches

You can use the procedures in this topic to configure:

• An EX2300 Virtual Chassis

  Note:

  Junos OS releases prior to 18.4R1 support forming an EX2300 Virtual Chassis using only EX2300 multigigabit switches or only EX2300 switches that are not multigigabit model switches.

  Starting in Junos OS Release 18.4R1, EX2300, EX2300-C, and EX2300 multigigabit switches can all be combined in the same non-mixed Virtual Chassis.

• An EX3400 Virtual Chassis

• A non-mixed EX4300 Virtual Chassis

  Note:

  An EX4300 Virtual Chassis operates as a non-mixed Virtual Chassis if it is composed of only EX4300 multigigabit model switches, or composed only of any combination of any other EX4300 switches excluding the multigigabit models.

  You must configure mixed mode if you combine EX4300 multigigabit models with other EX4300 models in an EX4300 Virtual Chassis.

• A mixed EX4300 Virtual Chassis with EX4300 multigigabit model (EX4300-48MP) switches interconnected with other EX4300 model switches

• An EX4100 Virtual Chassis

  Note:

  You can combine any models of EX4100 switches, including EX4100 multigigabit models, and EX4100-F into a Virtual Chassis without needing to configure mixed mode.

• An EX4400 Virtual Chassis
  Note:

  You can combine any models of EX4400 switches, including multigigabit models, into an EX4400 Virtual Chassis without needing to configure mixed mode.

You can mix non-multigigabit model EX4300 switches with other switches in a Virtual Chassis or Virtual Chassis Fabric (VCF) in the following supported combinations. In these cases, use the following configuration procedures instead of the procedures in this topic:

• A mixed EX4600 Virtual Chassis that includes EX4600 and EX4300 member switches: Configuring EX4600 Switches in a Mixed or Non-Mixed Virtual Chassis.

• A mixed QFX Series Virtual Chassis that includes supported QFX Series and EX4300 switches: Configuring an EX4650 or a QFX Series Virtual Chassis.

• A mixed VCF with EX4300 switches as leaf nodes: Preprovisioning a Virtual Chassis Fabric or Autoprovisioning a Virtual Chassis Fabric.

Use the following requirements and guidelines to plan the devices to include in your Virtual Chassis:

• EX2300 switches:

  In Junos OS releases prior to 18.4R1, you can interconnect EX2300 and EX2300-C switches into a Virtual Chassis, or you can interconnect EX2300 multigigabit model switches (EX2300-24MP and EX2300-48MP) into a Virtual Chassis. You can’t combine EX2300 or EX2300-C switches with EX2300 multigigabit model switches in a Virtual Chassis.

  Starting in Junos OS Release 18.4R1, you can combine EX2300, EX2300-C, and EX2300 multigigabit switches in the same non-mixed Virtual Chassis, and use any of these switches in any role (primary Routing Engine role, backup Routing Engine role, or linecard role).

• EX3400 switches:

  You can interconnect EX3400 switches only with other EX3400 switches in a Virtual Chassis (no mixed mode).

• EX4300 switches:

  You can interconnect EX4300 switches excluding multigigabit models into a non-mixed EX4300 Virtual Chassis.

  You can also connect EX4300 multigigabit model switches (EX4300-48MP) together into a non-mixed EX4300 Virtual Chassis.

  You can combine EX4300 multigigabit model switches with other EX4300 model switches as a mixed EX4300 Virtual Chassis with the following configuration:

  • You must configure the Virtual Chassis into mixed mode.

  • You must also include a special port mode option (ieee-clause-82) when you configure mixed mode on the EX4300 switches that are not multigigabit models. This port mode enables the Virtual Chassis ports (VCPs) on EX4300 non-multigigabit model switches to communicate with VCPs on multigigabit model members.

    Note:

    If you remove a non-multigigabit model EX4300 switch from a mixed EX4300 Virtual Chassis with multigigabit model members, remember to disable ieee-clause-82 port mode on the removed switch if you want to reconfigure it as a standalone switch or use it in any other type of mixed Virtual Chassis or non-mixed Virtual Chassis. Otherwise, the VCPs will not connect with other members in the new Virtual Chassis. (See Removing or Replacing a Member Switch of a Virtual Chassis Configuration.)

  • The members in the Routing Engine role must be multigigabit model (EX4300-48MP) switches.

• EX4100 switches:

  You can interconnect EX4100 switches only with other EX4100 switches in a Virtual Chassis, including EX4100 multigigabit models, and EX4100-F model. You do not need to configure mixed mode when combining EX4100 multigigabit models with other EX4100 and EX4100-F models.

• EX4400 switches:

  You can interconnect EX4400 switches only with other EX4400 switches in a Virtual Chassis, including EX4400 multigigabit models. You do not need to configure mixed mode when combining EX4400 multigigabit models with other EX4400 models.

Use these guidelines to plan the VCP connections:

• In a non-mixed EX4300 Virtual Chassis with only EX4300 multigigabit model (EX4300-48MP) switches, interconnect the member switches using the dedicated VCPs—the 40-Gpbs QSFP+ ports on the rear panel. These are the only ports that can be used as VCPs on EX4300-48MP switches.

• In a mixed EX4300 Virtual Chassis with a combination of EX4300 multigigabit model switches and other EX4300 model switches, you must use 40-Gbps QSFP+ ports on the other EX4300 model switches as VCPs and interconnect those ports with the dedicated VCPs on the multigigabit model switch members.

  Note:

  All QSFP+ ports on EX4300 non-multigigabit switches are configured as VCPs in the default factory configuration.

• In non-mixed EX2300, EX3400, and non-multigigabit model EX4300 Virtual Chassis, use uplink ports that you configure as VCPs or that are VCPs by default to interconnect the member switches. Keep the following in mind about VCPs on these switches:

  • EX2300 switches do not have any ports that are configured by default as VCPs. You must explicitly configure the ports you want to use as VCPs.

  • The QSFP+ uplink ports on EX3400 and EX4300 switches support 40-Gbps speeds. These ports are set as VCPs by default, so you don’t need to explicitly configure them.

  • You can configure the SFP+ uplink ports on any of these switches as VCPs. These ports support 10-Gbps speeds and can connect switches that are up to 6.2 miles (10 km) apart.

    Note:

    The only exceptions are the four built-in 10-Gbps SFP+ ports on 32-port EX4300 switches. You can’t use the built-in ports as VCPs.

    Also, for uplink ports on these switches that support SFP or SFP+ transceivers, you can't form a Virtual Chassis using ports that have SFP transceivers installed. The ports must have SFP+ transceivers installed for them to function properly as VCPs.

• The simplest way to interconnect EX3400 or EX4300 switches into a non-mixed EX3400 or EX4300 Virtual Chassis is to interconnect them into a Virtual Chassis by using the QSFP+ ports (the default VCPs).

  For an EX3400 or EX4300 Virtual Chassis, if you are using the QSFP+ ports for another purpose, or for any EX2300 Virtual Chassis, you must configure SFP+ uplink module ports into VCPs.

• In an EX4400 Virtual Chassis, you must use the default VCPs to interconnect the member switches, which are the only ports that can be used as VCPs on any model of these switches. The default VCPs on the EX4400 and multigigabyte models are the two 100-Gbps ports on the rear panel, which operate as two logical 50-Gbps VCPs each for a total of four logical VCP interfaces on the switch. If you previously converted the default VCPs into network ports, you must convert them back into VCPs using the request virtual- chassis mode network-port disable command. You must then reboot the switch for the port mode conversion to take effect. 


• In an EX4100 Virtual Chassis, you must use the default VCPs to interconnect the member switches, which are the only ports that can be used as VCPs on any model of these switches. The default VCPs on the EX4100 and EX4100 multigigabyte models are the four 25-Gbps ports on the front panel. If you previously converted the default VCPs into network ports, you must convert them back into VCPs using the request virtual- chassis mode network-port disable command. You must then reboot the switch for the port mode conversion to take effect.

• In an EX4100-F Virtual Chassis, you must use the default VCPs to interconnect the member switches, which are the only ports that can be used as VCPs on any model of these switches. The default VCPs on the EX4100-F models are the four 10-Gbps ports on the front panel. If you previously converted the default VCPs into network ports, you must convert them back into VCPs using the request virtual- chassis mode network-port disable command. You must then reboot the switch for the port mode conversion to take effect.

• If you need additional VCP bandwidth between two member switches, you can configure additional ports as VCPs and create redundant links between the member switches.

  Redundant VCP links are not required to be the same speed, but the links with identical speeds automatically form a VCP link aggregation group (LAG) to provide resiliency to the Virtual Chassis. For example, if you have two 40-Gbps QSFP+ ports and two 10-Gbps SFP+ ports configured as VCPs connecting the same two member switches to each other, the member switches form two LAGs—one LAG with two 40-Gbps QSFP+ port links and another with two 10-Gbps SFP+ port links.

Note:

A Virtual Chassis configuration has two Routing Engines—the primary switch and the backup switch. We recommend that you always use commit synchronize rather than simply commit to save configuration changes made for a Virtual Chassis. This ensures that you save the configuration changes on both Routing Engines at the same time.

You can configure the Virtual Chassis using either of the following options:

• A nonprovisioned configuration—The primary sequentially assigns a member ID to other member switches. The role is determined by the primary-role priority value and other factors in the primary-role election algorithm.

• A preprovisioned configuration—You can deterministically control the member ID and role assigned to a member switch by tying the member switch to its serial number.

All member switches must be running the same version of Junos OS to form a Virtual Chassis.

Note:

You must configure a VLAN on all interfaces in the Virtual Chassis, except on member switch 0, before the interfaces can send or receive traffic. This is because the interfaces on member switch 0 are initially placed into the default VLAN, but the interfaces on all other member switches are not placed into any VLAN. See Configuring VLANs for EX Series Switches with ELS Support (CLI Procedure).

Note:

On an EX4300 Virtual Chassis, STP is disabled on all interfaces except the interfaces on member switch 0 until some type of spanning-tree protocol is enabled. See Configuring RSTP on EX Series Switches (CLI Procedure) (RSTP is the default spanning-tree protocol), Configuring MSTP on Switches, or Configuring VSTP Protocol to enable a spanning-tree protocol on the interfaces in your EX4300 Virtual Chassis.