Stacking juniper ex4500 with ex4550 switches using virtual chassis and vc-ports

Summary: 

I have just finished stacking juniper switches and for this particular work, i stacked a mixture of EX4550-32F and EX4500-40F. everything was smooth for me i should say and i got it right at first attempt. below i share my experience.

Disclaimer: This blog post is not a substitute for the original juniper documents and manuals, as a matter of fact, my only reference was juniper materials when i was setting this up:

Link1: configuring mixed virtual chassis
Link2: understanding EX Series VC components
Link3: VC cabling examples

Problem or Goal:

i had run out of port count and i need more port for new projects.

Cause:

Running out of port count

Solution:

For my case, the old switch was the EX4500-40F and was carrying live traffic and it's the switch i wanted to be the master. Here is the simple procedure i followed without having to restart my old switch. we are going to use the preprovisioned configuration mode:

1. Gather the serial numbers for the two switches:
> show chassis hardware

2. (On the EX4500-40F, that is going to be the master) Verify the PIC mode setting:
> show chassis pic-mode

3. If the PIC mode setting is not set to virtual-chassis, set the PIC mode to virtual-chassis:
> request chassis pic-mode virtual-chassis

4. If the PIC mode in step (3) above was changed, you will have to reboot your switch. for my case it was already set to "virtual-chassis" to i got away with having to reboot my core switch and interrupting service.

> request system reboot

> show chassis pic-mode     
fpc0:
------------------------------------------------------------------
    Pic Mode: PIC 3: virtual-chassis

5. At this point, the switch that is supposed to be the master (EX4500-40F) is powered up whereas the new switch (backup) is powered off (EX4550-32F). It's time to do the "preprovisioned configuration" on the master switch (EX4500-40F)

6. Specify the preprovisioned configuration mode:

[edit virtual-chassis]

# set preprovisioned

7. Specify all the members that will be included in the Virtual Chassis configuration, listing each switch's serial number with the desired member ID and the desired role:

[edit virtual-chassis]

# set member 0 serial-number BR0213517499 role routing-engine

# set member 1 serial-number BR0213517498 role routing-engine

8. (Optional. Recommended for a two-member Virtual Chassis) Disable the split and merge feature:

[edit virtual-chassis]

# set no-split-detection

9. Check you configuration so far:

# commit check

10. Commit your configuration on the master

# commit

11. Connect the VC cable to the VC-Ports, for my case i connected vcp-0 of EX4500-40F to vcp-0 of EX4550-32F, there are located at the back panel.

 

11. Power on the new switch (EX4550-32F)

12. EX4550-32F booted and was automatically added to the virtual chassis as a back up; here are some helpful show commands to verify that your VC is successful.

# show virtual-chassis vc-port 

# show virtual-chassis

# show chassis hardware

Problem Solved?

Absolutely, i now have 32 more ports for my new projects.

For any questions regarding this project, use the comment section. cheers