NetVanta 4305 w/Octal Bonding - Newbie question

[bgreen]

Hi all.

New here and to AdTran in general.  Would really appreciate some advice on resources.

My company is purchasing 2 NetVanta 4305 chassis and 2 Octal T1/E1 modules based on recommendations by vendors.  We will be using seven T1's for a point to point connection from Nebraska to Texas.  Yes, I know it seems odd, but to get ~10Mb, that was the best/most cost effective option we had.  I'm trying to track down a book, or other resource to learn how to do the actual bonding of the lines.  I have some Cisco experience, but nothing with AdTran.  If need be, I will hire someone to configure the routers, but I would really feel better having the knowledge to do it myself.

Thanks in advance for any pointers, links, or personal experience that anyone can offer.

in

[Anonymous]

:

Thank you for asking this question in the support community!  For this application, if you are going to be bonding all the T1s together to make one logical connection, then typically multi-link PPP (MLPPP) is used.  The guide Configuring PPP in AOS explains this application.  The MLPPP technology overview begins on page 5, and example 4 on page 46 provides a configuration example.

Here is a sample command line interface configuration example for the main site in your application:

interface t1 3/1

  clock source internal

  tdm-group 1 timeslots 1-24 speed 64

  no shutdown

!

interface t1 3/2

  clock source internal

  tdm-group 2 timeslots 1-24 speed 64

  no shutdown

!

interface t1 3/3

  clock source internal

  tdm-group 3 timeslots 1-24 speed 64

  no shutdown

!

interface t1 3/4

  clock source internal

  tdm-group 4 timeslots 1-24 speed 64

  no shutdown

!

interface t1 3/5

  clock source internal

  tdm-group 5 timeslots 1-24 speed 64

  no shutdown

!

interface t1 3/6

  clock source internal

  tdm-group 6 timeslots 1-24 speed 64

  no shutdown

!

interface t1 3/7

  clock source internal

  tdm-group 7 timeslots 1-24 speed 64

  no shutdown

!

interface ppp 1

  ip address <ip address> <subnet mask>

  ppp multilink

  no shutdown

  cross-connect 1 t1 3/1 1 ppp 1

  cross-connect 2 t1 3/2 2 ppp 1

  cross-connect 3 t1 3/3 3 ppp 1

  cross-connect 4 t1 3/4 4 ppp 1

  cross-connect 5 t1 3/5 5 ppp 1

  cross-connect 6 t1 3/6 6 ppp 1

  cross-connect 7 t1 3/7 7 ppp 1

!

ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 ppp 1

I hope that makes sense, but please do not hesitate to reply with any questions or additional information.  I will be happy to help in any way I can.

Levi

[bgreen]

Thanks Levi!

I haven't even had a chance to power the units on yet, but the sample you posted does make some sense to me.  I really appreciate your response.  I'm sure it will be a great deal of help.

Working on getting the cross connects done from the demarc to my server room in Nebraska.  Then get one 4305 set up here.  Followed by flying down to Texas to start all over.  Makes for an interesting project when I have to do both ends of the circuit

Peace,

Brian

[bgreen]

Well, after some delay, I'm back to this project.  T1's are in place, getting ready to tackle the routers.

Levi, your advice on bonding was awesome.  I wanted to throw out a high level view of what I'm trying to accomplish.  The two EMC backup arrays need to be able to replicate to each other from Nebraska to Texas.  No other traffic should go across the Adtran segment (there is separate MPLS for that).  I will be bonding the 7 T1's.  Would I be best to bridge the two routers?  Or create another subnet for that 'middle' network.  Anyone have any advice or worked with a similar scenario?

As always, thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

:

There are multiple ways this could be configured/designed.  If you get a chance, some additional information will assist me with providing you a recommendation.  Is it just the EMC backup arrays that will be communicating over the multilink T1 bundle?  Will the MPLS network failover to the multilink T1 bundle, or will the EMC backup arrays failover to the MPLS if the T1s go down?  What device is the default-gateway for the network and for the EMC backup arrays?

Please, let me know the answers to these questions, or provide any additional information that might be helpful.

Levi

[bgreen]

For now, the only thing I want going over the Multilink bundle is the replication traffic for the two EMC arrays.  Failover would be nice, but the MPLS can't handle the traffic.  I added more detail on the Visio.  We have a Cisco 2600 which is the gateway on the Nebraska side.  That's our main internal router and I have access to configure it as necessary.  On the TX side, the gateway is the ATT router since they get all their data including internet over MPLS.  The 2800's are managed by AT&T. 

Each of the EMC boxes has two ethernet interfaces.  NE servers back up the EMC box there and then replicate to the EMC box in TX.  That's the goal anyway.  Initially, in my head, things were simple, but the more I look at this I realize that I'm not sure what is the best way to configure things.  Maybe the second set of switches (labeled WAN in diagram) are not the way to go.  I probably should have hired this project out, and am running way over schedule now because I chose not to, but I really want to learn how to do it myself.

Thanks again for your help Levi.  Very much appreciated!

Brian

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Brian:

If I understand the diagram and application, then there are many ways you could design/configure this.  Here is one suggestion:

Option 1 = Have the Internet/MPLS routers route the EMC traffic

NE Location:

• Have the EMC use the Cisco 2600 as the default-gateway
• On the Cisco 2600, have a route to the EMC's IP address at TX point to the next hop IP address of the LAN IP address of the ADTRAN NetVanta in NE
• On the ADTRAN NetVanta at NE, have a default-route that points to the MLPPP IP address of the TX NetVanta (this will be a new subnet, such as 192.168.99.0 /30; 192.168.99.1 could be the NE MLPPP IP address and 192.168.99.2 could be the TX MLPPP IP address)

TX Location:

• Have the EMC use the AT&T router as the default-gateway
• On the AT&T router, have a route to the EMC's IP address at NE point to the next hop IP address of the LAN IP address of the ADTRAN NetVanta in TX
• On the ADTRAN NetVanta at TX, have a default-route that points to the MLPPP IP address of the NE NetVanta

Option 2 = Have the ADTRAN NetVanta routers route the EMC traffic

NE Location:

• Have the EMC use the NetVanta's LAN IP address as the EMC's default-gateway
• On the NetVanta, have a default-route point to the Cisco, and a static route to the EMC's IP address at TX point to the next hop IP address of the MLPPP IP address of TX

TXLocation:

• Have the EMC use the NetVanta's LAN IP address as the EMC's default-gateway
• On the NetVanta, have a default-route point to the Cisco, and a static route to the EMC's IP address at NE point to the next hop IP address of the MLPPP IP address of NE

I'm sure that can be confusing, but please let me know what questions you have.

Levi

[bgreen]

I think I'm understanding where you're going.  I do not have access to change the config in the AT&T routers so option one is out.  Time to get out some scratch paper and see if I can figure addressing/routing for what you suggest in option two.

Brian

[Anonymous]

Brian:

If you have a new design, feel free to let me know.  I will be happy to review it for you.

Levi

[bgreen]

Alright, after my head stopped spinning, I think I'm starting to understand.  I was confused on the TX NetVanta gateway, but is this what you're thinking?

Brian

[Anonymous]

Brian:

I think you have it.  That is the design for "Option 2" that I referenced previously.  I hope that makes sense, but let me know if you have any questions on it.

Levi