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Netgear M6100 backup port feature?
Hi guys. This is my first time writing in this forum, so please excuse me if I'm writing this at the wrong place.
Anyway, my client has a Netgear M6100 chasis with a 24x10G blade attached. Right now, it is connected to two different routers, GW1 and GW2 as illustrated in the following image:
What I want to do is, something like this:
GW1 is the primary gateway while GW2 is the backup one. Since I just need to check for physical connections between the switch and the routers (they're directly connected), I want Port2 to be disabled while Port1 is connected is active. Only when Port1 somehow become disconnected will Port2 become active.
Is there any way to do this automatically, using features available in the OS? I tried searching for "backup port feature" or some such name but found nothing so far.. :mansad:
Thank you for your help.
6 Replies
Welcome to NETGEAR community!
Thanks for LaurentMa's solotion. And there has another option to meet your requirement：
If M6100 working at L2 , the best practise is to set vrrp between gw1 and gw2.
If M6100 working at L3, just set two default routes with different preference.
For example，
#ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 xx.xx.xx.xx 20 ,at here xx.xx.xx.xx is the address of gw1
#ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 xx.xx.xx.xx 10 ,at here xx.xx.xx.xx is the address of gw2
With the above settings
when gw1 and gw2 are all online，traffic will go to gw1 since route to gw1 have a high preference
when gw1 is down，traffic will go to gw2 since there is only one way to gw2
when gw1 became avaliable again，traffic will go to gw1 at priority.
Hope the answers could help you.Thank you Dane, Laurent and Carl for your responses. :)
I have discussed the possibilities of using various forms of routing protocols and/or VRRP with my clients. Unfortunately, it is technically not possible for both gateways to be up at the same time, as they both would have the exact same IP address.. >_<
Apparently, under the Netgear there would be another router as per below illustration:
For some reason, we could only use two (yes, only two..) IP addresses between the three of them.. somehow our client only have one spare /30 segment available.. >_< Traffic should go up relative to the Switch, from GW3 to either GW1 or GW2. So naturally GW1 and GW2 would have the same IP address shared between them.. >_<
That's why I've been trying to find an alternative method like using Link Dependency, as Laurent pointed out. If push comes to shove, I might have to ask our client to replace the M6100 with the newer M4300..
At any rate, thank you guys for the responses so far. Feel free to suggest something out of the box that you think might help solve this problem. :smileywink:
Regards,
Maul McKwack
Hi McKwack
Trying to understand your problem better:
So, both GW1 and GW2 have same IP address shared between them on their LAN side each time?
Sometimes I've seen pairs of gateways (managed by Service Providers) running VRRP between them natively and obviously sharing same virtual LAN IP address.
Are we in this configuration? If yes, it shouldn't be a problem to connect both simultaneously to M6100 switch, in same L2 broadcast domain (VLAN).
Would you happen to have GW1 and GW2 configuration files with their LAN configuration?
We will try to advise based on that.
Out of the box, I don't think we want to "replace" M6100 capable chassis switch by stackable M4300's for that only issue.
If above proposal not applicable, we can insert one M4300 switch in between M6100 and GW1/GW2, so that Link Dependency feature can be used on that new M4300 layer, on ports connecting to GW1 and GW2.
Hi McKwack
The feature you are referring to is called Link Dependency, which we don't have yet in our 11.0 code base that M6100 is running.
Instead, we have it in our latest 12.0 (M4200 and M4300 series). The feature is designed to support enabling/disabling some ports based on the link state of some other ports (i.e. make the link state of some ports dependent on the link state of other ports). In the simplest form, if port A is dependent on port B and switch detects link loss on B, the switch automatically brings down link on port A, or up depending on the configuration. When link is restored to port B, the switch automatically restores link to port A, or brings down link depending on configuration. The link action command option determines whether link A becomes up/goes down, depending upon the state of link B.
Let us check few other options in order to mitigate your issue shortly. At Layer 3, VRRP virtual router could achieve it, but it requires changes to your routing configuration. At Layer 2, STP is another challenge, but we could try it too by creating a loop. We are thinking of Policy Based Routing instead, which maybe would require less drastic changes in your routing configuration. We will be back to you asap.
Hi McKwack
Trying to keep it simple: could you try to set up a static LAG between Port 1 and Port 2? This way, your two gateways would be concurrently connected, but the Static LAG hashing would parse packets to one or the other, based on default hash (MAC, EtherType, VLAN), or your desired hash algorithm instead (can be Source IP, Dest IP, TCP or UDP port etc..).
Would that be a problem if your two gateways are up at the same time? If your routing configuration is able to sustain a Layer 2 connection / disconnection with any of these, it makes me believe simultaneous operation could be transparent enough for your network.
If you give it a try, please don't forget Link Aggregation Groups (LAG) are Dynamic, by default when they are created in our Managed switch code (Switching menu of our Web GUI, then LAG). Static mode will have to be manually "Enabled" for that LAG including your Port 1 & Port 2 . This way, the switch will not seek LACP handshake with your gateways, which obviously won't run any LACP on their end.
If you want to have an overview of LAG configuration using the Web interface (GUI), you can look at the explanations here (page 70-71).
You can find all technical documentation for the M6100 Chassis Switch here as well.
Please let us know how it goes, or if such simultaneous operation may cause a problem.
Regards,
Hi McKwack,
Welcome to the community! :)
I think the function that you want is kinda similar Auto Rollover mode that is supported in NETGEAR VPN Firewalls like the FVS336Gv3 wherein in the event the primary WAN port goes down, the backup WAN port automatically goes up. It seems that the function that you want is not possible on the M6100 switch.
Regards,
DaneA
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