ProCurve Switch configuration for mass deployment - without ProCurve Manager

We were tasked to upgrade networking infrastructure for one of our customers and that meant to setup, configure and roll-out more than 2000 edge devices and core devices, mostly HP ProCurve 2910al, some PoE deices 2610, and 6200yl.
The switches needed to be swapped overnight at each location (average 40 devices per location) replacing old existing device.
Here is a VR image how the warehouse looks like: http://tinyurl.com/lcpqpz9

The configuration was quite simple so I decided to automate the process of config loading and firmware upgrade.

One way would be to use HP ProCurve Manager, but at the time of this project ProCurve was not very stable and would require lot of "waiting" for the switches to show up.

Firmware Upgrade
I created automated way to upgrade the firmware on the switches, but I have found that fastest way is hook up the switches to our setup network, start tftp server with the recent SW update and then use laptop and connect to console and just copy series of commands like this (HP 2810-XXG)

copy tftp flash <Your_TFTP_Server_IP> N_11_25.swi primary
y
copy flash flash secondary
y
boot
y
y

Sometimes you have to do it twice because the boot ROM needs to be updated but the major advantage is that you do not have to wait for the commands to finish - they are buffered and you can move on to the next switch as soon as the text is pasted to the window. This way you can prepare the bare switches to the uniform state for the next step.

Documentation and Configuration
Since we go all the information we needed in Excel (name, IP) and the configuration on edge devices was pretty much the same, I created a macro script with config template for each model. After unpacking switch MACs were scanned into the template and IP modified based on the site network.

Configuration Template

To deploy the config in as few steps as possible I decided not to script all the configuration commands in a telnet session, but rather generate the config file for each switch based on the template and then just telnet to the switch and use tftp to transfer the right file.

Because of the specific configuration let me just show some of the logic and  behind The Config Button from the image above:

• Individual config files are generated with names like 2800_IPADDRESS.cfg
• Configuration file defining scopes and reservations for local DHCP is generated based on the target network information.
  This will define the scope 10.123.40.0 on server 10.10.1.9
  # ======================================================================
  #          Scope name: TEST_40
  # ======================================================================
  # Add scope for 10.123.40.0
  Dhcp Server 10.10.1.9 add scope 10.123.40.0 255.255.255.0 "TEST_40" ""
  Dhcp Server 10.10.1.9 Scope 10.123.40.0 set state 1
  # ======================================================================
  #  Add Ipranges to the Scope 10.123.40.0, Server 10.10.1.9
  Dhcp Server 10.10.1.9 Scope 10.123.40.0 Add iprange 10.123.40.1 10.123.40.100
  # ======================================================================
  #  Add Excluderanges to the Scope
  Dhcp Server 10.10.1.9 Scope 10.123.40.0 add excluderange 10.123.40.1 10.123.40.1
  # ======================================================================
  #  Add OptionValues to the Scope
  Dhcp Server 10.10.1.9 Scope 10.123.40.0 set optionvalue 51 DWORD "3600"
  Dhcp Server 10.10.1.9 Scope 10.123.40.0 set optionvalue 3 IPADDRESS "10.123.40.1"
  
  This will add a reservation to a scope defined above:
  Dhcp Server 10.10.1.9 Scope 10.123.40.0 Add reservedip 10.123.40.10 005056C00008 "XXX-IDFXX-sALXX" "" "BOTH"
• no the script will remotely execute commands for DHCP configuration
  netsh exec "TEST_scopes.txt"
  netsh exec "TEST_reservations.txt"
• Next step is to configure the the vlan on the core to ensure connectivity to the dhcp server
  from the configuration vlan:
  I used powershell to script the telnet session to the core using Windows Automation Snapin for Powershell
  

  <#
  Name: Scripted telnet session 
  Description: Configures VLAN, 
  Version: 1.0 - Jan, 2010
  
  This script is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and
  is not supported by the authors or deployment4everyone.
  WARNING if you do not fully understand this - it will break your network.
  Feel free to use and modify for your needs. 
  
  Author - Milos Pec
  Blog: http://deployment4everyone.blogspot.com
  #>
  cls
  Import-Module "c:\scripts\wasp.dll"
  
  ########################################################
  # Annoyance fix for x64 version of windows - lost path to telnet.exe ...
  # More info: http://www.skyeagle.net/blog/post/Missing-64-bit-native-commands-in-Powershell-%28x86%29.aspx
  if ( (Test-Path "$($env:systemroot)\sysnative") -and (($env:path).split(';') -notcontains "$($env:systemroot)\sysnative") ) {
      $env:path = "$($env:path);$($env:systemroot)\sysnative"
      Write-Host "Path updated to include: $($env:systemroot)\sysnative"
  } 
  ########################################################
  
  
  $switch = "COREIP"
  $user = "ADMINUSER"
  $pwd = ""
  
  #get arguments for the script
  if ($args[0]) {
          $netw = $args[0]
      }else{
          $netw = read-host "Enter second octet network number [10.XXX.40.0]"
  }
  
  if ($netw -eq "") {
      write-host "Panic - network number is needed ..." 
      } else {
  $_switch = read-host "Confirm switch IP [$switch]"
      if($_switch -eq ""){#Default
          }
      elseif($_switch -eq $null) {#Default
          }
      else{$switch = $_switch}
  
  $_user = read-host "Enter username [$user]"
      if($_user -eq ""){#Default
          }
      elseif($_user -eq $null) {#Default
          }
      else{$user = $_user}
  
  $pwd = read-host "Enter password" -AsSecureString
  $pwdenc = [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]
  $pwd = $pwdenc::PtrToStringAuto( $pwdenc::SecureStringToBSTR($pwd))
  Start telnet.exe $switch
  Start-Sleep -s 1
  Select-Window telnet | send-keys "~"
  Start-Sleep -s .2
  Select-Window telnet | send-keys "$user~"
  Start-Sleep -s .2
  Select-Window telnet | send-keys "$pwd~"
  Start-Sleep -s .2
  Select-Window telnet | send-keys "config ~"
  Start-Sleep -s .2
  Select-Window telnet | send-keys "vlan 40 ~"
  Start-Sleep -s .2
  Select-Window telnet | send-keys "no ip add ~"
  Start-Sleep -s .2
  Select-Window telnet | send-keys "ip add 10.$netw.40.1 255.255.255.0 ~"
  Start-Sleep -s .2
  Select-Window telnet | send-keys "untag c1-c24,d1-d24 ~"
  Start-Sleep -s .2
  Select-Window telnet | send-keys "write mem ~"
  Start-Sleep -s .2
  Select-Window telnet | send-keys "logout ~"
  Start-Sleep -s 1
  }

• The switches can be turned on and they should get the correct IP address
• The macro is setup to automatically start the TFTP server (I am using opensource TFTPD32) configured with source directory where all the switch configs are stored and then using again PowerShell scripted session to run simple commands to download the right configuration:
  copy tftp startup-config TFTP_IP 2600_SWITCHIP_ip.cfg
  

Next missing step is 3 hours on site replacing switches ... but that can be fun to :-).