Network Redundancy at Festivals

[Alex QP]

Hey everyone,

I had an issue while doing a festival run this summer, my gear is as follows:

2 x MA3 at FOH (mode 2)
2 x MA3 NPUs (mode 2)
2 x proplex network nodes
2 x managed switches. - Running a trunking redundancy loop

So this is my first time using manged switches and trunking redundancy, I got a quick rundown in the shop and got everything working before heading out on the road. I hit my first festival and the managed switches don't want to accept any external unamanged switches into the network. (I assumed because they are not part of the trunking system it gets dropped out and ignored) so that's fine, I just bypassed my trunking system and plugged my NPU's and nodes straight into the house dimmer beach and away we went. Show went fine.


Festival 2 - I automatically did the same thing, just bypassed my managed switches off the bat and tested everything, it seemed to be ok for the first bit. But then we got caught in an upload loop to our NPU's during changeover. We basically restarted every piece of equipment we were using and got it stable with 5 minutes to spare. First half hour of the set went fine and then the same error persisted. Ultimately we had to turn half the rig off, painful but it was a daylight set so not completely horrible but still painful.

Anybody run into this problem with NPU's? I've not had a chance to recreate this at the shop but it might need to have the software reinstalled.

Also how do you all set up redundancy for touring acts for festivals? Is there a way? I'm thinking of just using some good unmanaged switches to run everything.

Thanks for reading,

-Alex QP

 

[themuzicman]

I'm not a lighting person, but I'll take a stab at two parts of your question. The exact model of your switches would be helpful information, however it isn't completely necessary --

I hit my first festival and the managed switches don't want to accept any external unamanged switches into the network. (I assumed because they are not part of the trunking system it gets dropped out and ignored) so that's fine, I just bypassed my trunking system and plugged my NPU's and nodes straight into the house dimmer beach and away we went. Show went fine.

The ports that need to go to any external unmanaged switches need to be untagged, set to whatever VLAN you want them to have access to, and have the correct PVID for the associated VLAN. The same way you'd plug any device into the targeted VLAN. An unmanaged switch cannot pass Trunk traffic. Some smart-managed (or semi-managed) switches can handle trunk traffic but you need to make sure the trunking schemes are set up appropriately between switches of different manufacturers. Some manufacturers have options to auto-configure upon recognition of a trunk port, other switches shut down a port altogether when they encounter traffic with an incorrect tag.

Also how do you all set up redundancy for touring acts for festivals? Is there a way? I'm thinking of just using some good unmanaged switches to run everything.

A trunk by itself is not offering any redundancy, all a trunk does is transmit multiple VLAN's down a single line. You want to set up a LAG (Link Aggregate Group). A LAG implies you are sending multiple lines switch-to-switch and has a few purposes - the two primary purposes are line redundancy and higher bandwidth switch-to-switch. If you lose one line a LAG will still transmit traffic. My first step in upping redundancy is to establish LAGs. After that I look at multiple switches that have multiple PSU's.

 

[danTt]

Without more understanding of your network topology and the topology of the places you're playing it's a bit of a guessing game, but if I were to throw darts at the second problem, I'd start with wondering if you had an IP address conflict with house gear. It can cause intermittent connectivity issues and other weird hard to troubleshoot things.

 

[Alex QP]

I'm not a lighting person, but I'll take a stab at two parts of your question. The exact model of your switches would be helpful information, however it isn't completely necessary --



The ports that need to go to any external unmanaged switches need to be untagged, set to whatever VLAN you want them to have access to, and have the correct PVID for the associated VLAN. The same way you'd plug any device into the targeted VLAN. An unmanaged switch cannot pass Trunk traffic. Some smart-managed (or semi-managed) switches can handle trunk traffic but you need to make sure the trunking schemes are set up appropriately between switches of different manufacturers. Some manufacturers have options to auto-configure upon recognition of a trunk port, other switches shut down a port altogether when they encounter traffic with an incorrect tag.



A trunk by itself is not offering any redundancy, all a trunk does is transmit multiple VLAN's down a single line. You want to set up a LAG (Link Aggregate Group). A LAG implies you are sending multiple lines switch-to-switch and has a few purposes - the two primary purposes are line redundancy and higher bandwidth switch-to-switch. If you lose one line a LAG will still transmit traffic. My first step in upping redundancy is to establish LAGs. After that I look at multiple switches that have multiple PSU's.

Thank you for your informative response!

This is all excellent information, to start with. I will be reading up as much as I can to redesign this network. Our switches are: Luminex Gigacore 14R

My goal is to have our ground package fully redundant, and a line out that can work with any festival's SACN so we can use their network as well. I'll dig into the manual and take your advice and get back to you if I have any questions.

Many thanks!

-Alex QP

 

[themuzicman]

Luminex Gigacore 14R

RLinkX is the feature in the Gigacore you're looking for, in addition to sending ISL port switch-to-switch