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How to Manage QSFP Ports on a N4000 Series Switch

Summary: Information about managing QSFP ports on Dell Networking N4000 series switches.

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Article Content


Instructions

This article explains how to manage the QSFP ports on a N4000 Series switch, including; setting a 1 x 40Gb (gigabit) QSFP port into 4 x 10Gb QSFP ports, setting the 4 x 10Gb QSFP ports to a 1 x 40Gb QSFP port, verifying the 1 x 40Gb and 4 x 10Gb ports are available and configuring a QSFP port as stack ports.

 

The default setting for a forty gigabit QSFP port (1 x 40Gb) and its' respective ten gigabit (4 x 10Gb) breakout ports is Ethernet, nonstacking.
When changing from one mode to another, a switch reboot is required. Consider updating the firmware.

 

To break out a 1 x 40Gb QSFP port on a N4000 Series switch into 4 x 10Gb ports, do the following:

 

The appropriate quad-breakout/QBO cable (fan out cable) must be used.
On a N4032 and N4032F, the QSFP plug in module ports are named Fo1/1/1-2 in 40-gigabit mode and Te1/1/1-8 in 10-gigabit mode.
On a N4064 and N4064F, the fixed QSFP ports are named Fo1/0/1-2 in 40-gigabit mode and Te1/0/49-56 in 10-gigabit mode. The ports on an optional QSFP plug-in module are named Fo1/1/1-2 in 40-gigabit mode and Te1/1/1-8 in 10-gigabit mode. 

1. Configure the QSFP port to be broken out.

                  console>enable

                        console#configure

                  console(config)#interface Fo1/1/1

                  console(config-if-Fo1/1/1)#hardware profile portmode 4x10g

2. Reboot the switch to transition the port into 4x10g mode.

                  This command will not take effect until the switch is rebooted.

                  console(config-if-Fo1/1/1)#do reload

                  Are you sure you want to reload the stack? (y/n)

 3. Verify the 4 x 10Gb ports are available.

                  console>enable  

                  console#show interfaces status

The reconfigured forty gigabit port's Link State should change to "Detached".
The respective ten gigabit ports' Link State should change from "Detached" to "Up" or "Down".

 

To change the 4 x 10Gb QSFP ports on a N4000 Series switch to a 1 x 40Gb QSFP port, do the following:

1. Configure the port.

                  console>enable

                        console#configure

                  console(config)#interface Fo1/1/1

                  console(config-if-Fo1/1/1)#hardware profile portmode 1x40g

2. Reboot the switch to transition the port into 1x40g mode.

                  This command will not take effect until the switch is rebooted.

                  console(config-if-Fo1/1/1)#do reload

                  Are you sure you want to reload the stack? (y/n)

3. Verify the 1 x 40Gb port is available.

                  console>enable  

                  console#show interfaces status

 

The four reconfigured ten gigabit ports' Link State should change to "Detached".
The respective forty gigabit port's Link State should change from "Detached" to "Up" or "Down".

 

To configure a QSFP port as a stack-port on a N4000 Series switch, do the following:

QSFP ports support stacking over the interfaces in either 1x40g mode or 4x10g mode. The QSFP port must be configured into 4 x 10g mode prior to configuring the respective ten gigabit ports into stack mode.

 

N4000 Series switches support stacking over Ethernet ports as well. 

 

1. Configure the desired QSFP port from the default Ethernet mode to stack mode.

                  console>enable

                  console#config

                  console(config)#stack

                        console(config-stack)#stack-port fortygigabitethernet 1/1/1 stack

2. Reboot the switch to transition the port into stack mode.

                  console(config-if-Fo1/1/1)#do reload

                  Are you sure you want to reload the stack? (y/n)

3. Verify the 1 x 40Gb port or 4 x10Gb ports are in stack mode.

                  console>enable  

                  console#show switch stack-ports

 

Article Properties


Affected Product

PowerSwitch N4000 Series

Last Published Date

21 Feb 2021

Version

3

Article Type

How To