Alcatel Unleashed

Looking at merging 2 virtual chassis into one singular VC of 4 6900 X40's

Im not much for the auto config feature for the VFlinks.

On my current Virtual chassis, I just have one vflink0 with 2 ports added and this is on both switches and then i connect them together and it works.

If i do 4 units, can i still just use vflink 0 on all 4 of them and include the 4 ports on each switch and cross connect all of the patch cables to form the "mesh"?

In the documentation i have seen, with 6 units, there are several VFlinks configured, such as vflink0 vflink1 vflink2and those cross connect to the other nodes in the VC mesh. Not sure if its some kind of way to ID them differently or if that is required.

example of how I was going to do it

Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis configured-chassis-id 1
Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 create
Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 1/40
Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 1/39
Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 1/38
Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 1/37
Chassis_1-> write memory
Chassis_1-> convert-configuration to vc_dir

Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis configured-chassis-id 2
Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 create
Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 2/40
Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 2/39
Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 2/38
Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 2/37
Chassis_2-> write memory
Chassis_2-> convert-configuration to vc_dir

Chassis_3-> virtual-chassis configured-chassis-id 3
Chassis_3-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 create
Chassis_3-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 3/40
Chassis_3-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 3/39
Chassis_3-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 3/38
Chassis_3-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 3/37
Chassis_3-> write memory
Chassis_3-> convert-configuration to vc_dir

Chassis_4-> virtual-chassis configured-chassis-id 4
Chassis_4-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 create
Chassis_4-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 4/40
Chassis_4-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 4/39
Chassis_4-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 4/38
Chassis_4-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 4/37
Chassis_4-> write memory
Chassis_4-> convert-configuration to vc_dir



and then cross connect all of those ports...

That should not work.
Have all Ports between two chassis in on VfL link.
E.g. Between ch1 and ch 2 use VfL0 add all ports that connect physically ch1&2
Between ch1 and ch3 use vfl1
Between ch1 and ch4 use vfl2

Similar on the other switches. Vfl numbers can be different e.g on ch2 the VfL Torwards ch1 can be vfl3, Even if ch1 uses vfl0 (its a lacp with a different Name..)

You can't cheat by using a single Vfl

why does it work with just 2 in the VC? Here is my current config to put 2 6900 in a VC.

Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis configured-chassis-id 1
Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 create
Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 1/40
Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 1/39
Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 1/38
Chassis_1-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 1/37
Chassis_1-> write memory
Chassis_1-> convert-configuration to vc_dir

Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis configured-chassis-id 2
Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 create
Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 2/40
Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 2/39
Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 2/38
Chassis_2-> virtual-chassis vf-link 0 member-port 2/37
Chassis_2-> write memory
Chassis_2-> convert-configuration to vc_dir

I just studied what you said. I think I get it now.

If i have 4 switches(chassis) I need atleast 3 VFL's per chassis to accomplish it correctly... And it doesn't matter what VFL another VFL connects to....so long as if its 2 patches between 2 switches, those patches fall into the same VFL on each switch regardless of what number they are.

You are right.
AFAIK VFLs can be anything from 0 to 4 (so no VFL 23) as you can have a maximum of 6 devices in a VC of 6900.
Otherwise you figured it out correct. Remember VCs with more than 2 devices require 7.3.3 onwards (in case you have ancient 7.3.2 running you need a update)