Answer: Using NPAR, the VLAN assignment, specifically the C-VLAN (Customer VLAN) assignment, occurs at the port level only. With Advanced NPAR, VLANs are assigned on the port and partition level as well. This is a switch-dependent feature, so the switch is aware of the VLAN assignment in addition to the NIC. This means that where administrators were previously limited to a single VLAN assignment across an entire physical port in NPAR, with Advanced NPAR administrators can now assign multiple VLANs across multiple NPARs on a NIC port.

Answer:

Answer: No, Advanced NPAR interfaces are not retained while changing switch modes.

Answer:

OS10# show system node-id 1 NPAR-configured

Answer: In OME-M, under Configuration, browse to the Edit Template section, expand the NICs under Networking, and click Select VLAN(s). From there, check the box in the header to select all VLANs.

Answer: No. LACP will not work with Advanced NPAR.

Answer: You can enable Advanced NPAR per NIC from within the server BIOS. The general steps to enable Advanced NPAR are:

1. From the Lifecycle Controller landing page, click System Setup.
2. Click Advanced Hardware Configuration.
3. Click Device Settings.
4. Click the desired NIC Port for NPAR (in our case, Port 1).
5. Click Device Level Configuration.
6. From the Virtualization Mode drop-down list, select Advanced NPAR.
7. If NParEP is disabled, click Enable.
8. Click Back.

For detailed instructions and additional detail, please refer to the Dell PowerEdge MX Networking Deployment Guide at Dell PowerEdge MX Networking Deployment Guide.

Answer: Yes, in Full Switch mode you can partition a NIC into either two, four, or eight partitions. The command to configure two partitions is:

# NPAR partition-2

Note: Alter the last number to either 4 or 8 to configure that number of partitions.

Answer: Currently, only the quad-port Broadcom 57504 mezzanine card supports Advanced NPAR.

Answer: No.

Answer: No. Currently, Advanced NPAR is supported only on the Dell Networking MX9116n FSE and Dell Networking MX5108n switch.

Answer: Yes, Advanced NPAR is a switch-dependent network partitioning technology. Server NIC ports and IOM switch ports can be split into logical partitions. Once those partitions are created, the IOM switches treat those partitions as if they are physical interfaces. The IOM switch could do MAC learning, VLAN assignment, switching, and packet accounting on these logical interfaces.

Answer: Yes, you should partition the server and switch sides of the physical interface into an equal number of logical partitions. You can partition each physical interface into two, four, or eight logical partitions.

Answer: Yes, the unique identified value starts at 3.

Answer: Yes, when a frame is received with an outer VLAN tag (S-Tag, 802.1Q), the VID field of the S-tag identifies the logical partition.

Answer: Yes. The system uses QnQ TPID 888.

Answer: First, complete the necessary steps in the BIOS to set a NIC port to Advanced NPAR mode and reboot the system. Log into OME-M, browse to Configuration, click Templates, and click Edit Template. Under Edit Components, select Networking, and expand the NIC drop down tab to view all NIC port partitions.

Answer: No, you cannot execute the access-control list command on NPAR interfaces. You can apply the access list only to the parent interface(s).

Answer: Software-based FCoE and iSCSI are supported with Advanced NPAR. However, FCoE offload and iSCSI offload are not supported with Advanced NPAR.

Answer: No, NIC teaming is not supported when using Advanced NPAR. Only switch-independent NIC teaming is permitted on the ESXi host side.

Answer:

• Advanced NPAR features are supported on only Dell Networking MX9116n FSE and MX5108n IOMs. Once an interface is logically partitioned with NPAR, it cannot have Layer3 configurations.
• It is recommended to leave LLDP enabled on the parent interface or globally.
• The number of Port VLAN (PV) combinations on advanced NPAR ports is limited to 15,000 on the MX5108n and 10,000 on the MX9116n. See VLAN scaling guidelines for Full Switch mode for additional detail.
• FCoE is not supported on ports with Advanced NPAR enabled.
• Partitions (NPAR interfaces) on the same physical parent port, or the physical port itself, should not be configured with the same VLAN. This can cause Broadcast, unknown unicast, and multicast (BUM) traffic to egress out of the same physical port and cause a loop storm. It is recommended to configure non-overlapping VLANs on the ports and the partitions they contain.
• Advanced NPAR supports only RSTP Spanning Tree protocol. Advanced NPAR is not supported on the Dell Networking MX8116n.

Answer:

• Virtualization Mode: Advanced NPAR
• Adv NPAR Disabled: No partitions, only four NIC ports
• Adv NPAR Enabled: Two partitions per port, total of eight partitions.
• Adv NPAR Enabled with NParEP Mode: Four partitions per port, total of 16 partitions.
• Number of MSI-X Vectors per VF: 16 Maximum number of PF MSI-X Vectors: 74 Link FEC: Disabled
• Operational Link Speed: Auto Negotiated
• Support RDMA on VFs: Disabled
• DCBX Mode: Disabled
• LLDP nearest bridge: Enabled
• LLDP nearest non-TPMR bridge: Enabled

Answer: Administrators can change the Advanced NPAR configuration from the NIC device Main Configuration Page in system setup. They can select whether or not Advanced NPAR is enabled and also choose whether to enable NParEP, allowing up to four partitions per interface. Additionally, on the NIC Partitioning Configuration page in system setup, admins can allocate partition bandwidth.

Answer:

• Viewing newly created NPAR partitions

OS10# show running-configuration interface eth-NPAR1/71/5/1

Note: The last number signifies partition #1.

• On the switch, which command do I use to show if NPAR is configured on switch ports?

# show system node-id 1 NPAR-configured

• Creating four partitions

OS10 (config)# interface ethernet 1/1/2

OS10 (config -lf -eth1/1/2)# NPAR partition-4

Note: This will split the physical port into four partitions

• Checking to ensure the partitions were created

OS10# show running-configuration interface eth-NPAR

• Clearing all interface counters

OS10# clear counters

To clear all interface counters, click Yes.

• Unconfiguring the NPAR partitions

OS10# show running-configuration interface eth-NPAR

OS10# show running-configuration interface eth-NPAR

• Showing the Fabric Expander Module information

OS10# show discovered-expanders

This will list the service tag, MX7116n Fabric Expander Module, used in this example. You should also see Chassis-service-tag, Chassis-slot (A1), Port-group, and Virtual-Slot-Id.