How to configure switch on VRTX?

You need to use Fabric A to get network for embedded network ports. Looking at the picture, looks like you have "Dell PowerEdge VRTX 10 Gb R1-2210 switch module" on the chassis. For this you can connect uplink to any one of the port and all 4 blades will get the network link.

Thanks. I tried connecting the uplink cable to one of the two ports labeled gi0/1 . But it seems I get no lights flashing  . When I log into the switch I see all the external ports are down ( see picture below ).

To verify it's not a cable issue, I unplugged the CMC uplink cable and plugged it into the gi0/1 port . Still, no ethernet lights flashed.. I then plugged the cable back to the CMC port. But now it seems I can not access the CMC anymore from the web. The enclosure is flashing a bunch of red lights.. Did I do something bad by pulling out the cable from the CMC?

Can you connect uplink to 10Gig ports and see whether it is making any difference.  Removing cable from CMC should not create any issues. You can check blow link to understand LED pattern

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/poweredge-vrtx/cmcvrtx32ug/interpreting-led-colors-and-blinking-patterns?guid=guid-9b775c1b-8a38-43db-a7aa-835020072013&lang=en-us 

Hello thisisalloneword,

I'll admit networking is not my strong suit but I think this article may fit what you see:

Dell EMC Networking VRTX R1-2210 Switch Gig ports down, link lights off

https://dell.to/3mQ1duf

I believe it is blinking amber/red? which indicates a fault. 

Someone from our networking team is saying the uplink port has gone into disabled state. He said, "there is BPDU msg received on this port and making it in error disable state and in addition to that check if there is patch panel in between."

I am not sure why unplugging and plugging back in the cable to the CMC would cause this issue.. Will investigate furthur..

Well, who knows if the ports...

• are "shutdown"
• configured for tagged VLAN
• are part of a LAG/LACP
• $enter more reason here..

so take a look to "show running-config" or just reset the config by removing the startup-config and reload the switch.

Question: The internal ports are green?

Apparently what happened is the uplink port got disabled when I plugged it into the VRTX port gi0/1 . The reason for this is explained by our higher level networking team here:

" Kindly note that the Dell device should not send any BPDU messages to the switch because it could change the STP topology however from the logs checked by the IP experts those devices have sent a BPDU message so the switch blocked them by putting the interface in err-disable mode. "

I am quite cluless on what this means and what I should do though. Will do some more research on this topic...

We do have other Dell enclosures in the server room. So we are going to look into how their switches are configured.

Well, Cisco and others have something called BPDU Guard.

05:56:13: %SPANTREE-2-BLOCK_BPDUGUARD: Received BPDU on port FastEthernet0/5 with BPDU Guard enabled. Disabling port.
05:56:13: %PM-4-ERR_DISABLE: bpduguard error detected on Fa0/5, putting Fa0/5 in err-disable state
05:56:13: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface FastEthernet0/5, changed state to down

 Most likely you have connect the switch of the VRTX to a switch port which was configured as a edge port. Those ports never would like to see BPDU packages which can modify/reconfigure the STP Root bridge which than can cause major network problems.

And is it not BPDU it maybe something like NAC which try to protect your company network against unknown devices. So never connect something to your company network without permission.

Regards,
Joerg

You can check and verify the configuration on R1-2210 switch to ensure it is proper. You can follow below step to configure and access R1-2210 switch

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/dell-chassis-management-controller-v3.0-dell-poweredge-vrtx/cmc_vrtx_3.0_ug/configuring-network-settings-for-iom-using-cmc-web-interface?guid=guid-e12b73ce-2b50-4784-891f-3b42c4993221&lang=en-us 

Can you connect uplink to 10Gig ports and see whether it is making any difference.  Removing cable from CMC should not create any issues. You can check blow link to understand LED pattern

I am quite cluless on what this means and what I should do though. Will do some more research on this topic...

We do have other Dell enclosures in the server room. So we are going to look into how their switches are configured.

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/poweredge-vrtx/cmcvrtx32ug/interpreting-led-colors-and-blinking-patterns?guid=guid-9b775c1b-8a38-43db-a7aa-835020072013&lang=en-us

In layman's terms, what is BPDU ? And why doesn't the switch for the CMC and iDRAC's not send BPDU messages? 

Here's the options I see for the switch. Not sure which I should be paying closer attention to:

The CNC is not a real switch or at least it doesnt never become a RootBridge but the R1-2210 is one. You have connect this switch to a edgeport of your CISCO which have an active protection against forged (PortFast) Bridge Protocol Data Unit packets.

Connect to the switch and investigate the config by running "show running-config" or better delete the existing startup-config and let your network guys to setup it in the right manner.

Regards,
Joerg

Regards,
Joerg

Thanks, I am having a few of our networking folks look into this. 

Here is the screenshot of what I see in the advanced admin view. Not sure which setting to be paying closer attention to with regards to the BPDU messages. 

I found out we have paid Dell support for this VRTX server. I tried to open a ticket online but was surprised to find out they only do phone support. Not looking forward to explaining this problem over the phone to multiple folks till someone understands the issue..

I have studied the configuration of other Dell enclosures in our server room. It seems the DHCP is turned off for the switch and the servers. Static IP addresses are manually entered for the servers and the switch . So I will try that next. I am still confused on whether that will solve the BPDU messages..