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Dell EMC SmartFabric OS10 User Guide Release 10.5.0

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Virtual ports

A virtual port is a logical OS10 port that connects to a downstream server and has no physical hardware location on the switch. Virtual ports are created when an MX9116n Fabric Switching Engine onboards an MX7116n Fabric Expander Module. The onboarding process consists of discovery and configuration.

Fabric Expander discovery

A Fabric Expander functions as an unmanaged Ethernet repeater with sixteen 25GE server-facing ports and two QSFP28-DD uplink ports. An attached Fabric Switching Engine in Full Switch mode automatically discovers the Fabric Expander when these conditions are met:

  • The Fabric Expander is connected to the Fabric Engine by attaching a cable between a QSFP28-DD port on each device.
  • On the Fabric Engine, the QSFP28-DD port-group connected to the Fabric Expander is in 25g-8x fabric-expander-mode mode.
  • At least one compute sled is installed in the MX7000 chassis containing the Fabric Expander.
NOTE If you move a Fabric Expander by cabling it to a different QSFP28-DD port on the Fabric Engine, all software configurations on virtual ports are maintained. Only the QSFP28-DD breakout interfaces that map to the virtual ports change.
NOTE If the servers in the MX7000 chassis have dual-port NICs, connect the Fabric Engine only to QSFP28-DD port 1 on the Fabric Expander. Do not connect to QSFP28-DD port 2.
To verify the auto-discovered Fabric Expanders, enter the show discovered-expanders command. 
OS10# show discovered-expanders 
Service-tag  Model        Type Chassis-service-tag Chassis-slot Port-group Virtual-Slot-Id   
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
403RPK2    MX7116n Fabric  1    SKY003Q             A2          port-group1/1/2            
           Expander Module

Fabric Expander virtual slot configuration

If the Fabric Switching Engine is in SmartFabric mode, an attached Fabric Expander is automatically configured:
  • Virtual ports on the Fabric Expander and a virtual slot ID are created and mapped to 8x25GE breakout interfaces in FEM mode on the Fabric Engine.
  • The unit ID is automatically discovered.
  • Server traffic is transmitted through the QSFP28-DD uplink on the Fabric Expander to the Fabric Engine.

If the Fabric Switching Engine is in Full Switch mode, you can perform the same switch configuration using the CLI as in SmartFabric mode using the graphical user interface, except that you must manually configure the unit ID of the Fabric Expander. The unit ID is also called the virtual slot ID.

  1. Locate the service tag of the Fabric Expander in the show discovered-expanders output.
  2. Display the unassigned unit IDs reserved for Fabric Expanders in EXEC mode. The service tags of provisioned Fabric Expanders are displayed in the Provision Name column of the show unit-provision output. 
    OS10# show unit-provision  

Node ID | Unit ID | Provision Name | Discovered Name | State |
--------+---------+----------------+-----------------+-------|
1       | 71      |                |                 |       |
1       | 72      |                |                 |       |
1       | 73      |                |                 |       |
1       | 74      |                |                 |       |
1       | 75      |                |                 |       |
1       | 76      |                |                 |       |
1       | 77      |                |                 |       |
1       | 78      | SP0012         | SP0012          | up    |
1       | 79      |                |                 |       |
1       | 80      |                |                 |       |
1       | 81      |                |                 |       |
1       | 82      |                |                 |       |
  3. Configure the unit ID for the service tag (provision name) of the Fabric Expander in CONFIGURATION mode. 
    OS10(config)# unit-provision node/unit-id provision_name
    • node/unit-id — Enter 1 for node with an unassigned unit ID from the show unit-provision output.
    • provision_name — Enter the service tag of the Fabric Expander from the Service-tag field in the show discovered-expanders output.
  4. Verify the discovered Fabric Expander and its virtual slot ID in EXEC mode. 
    OS10# show discovered-expanders 

Service-tag  Model       Type Chassis-service-tag Chassis-slot Port-group Virtual-Slot-Id   
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
403RPK2   MX7116n Fabric  1    SKY003Q             A2         port-group1/1/2    71    
          Expander Module

    When the Fabric Switching Engine discovers the Fabric Expander, it creates virtual ports by mapping each 8x25GE FEM breakout interface in port groups 1 to 9 to a Fabric Expander virtual port.

    Table 1. Example: Fabric Expander virtual port mappingExample: Fabric Expander virtual port mapping
    Fabric Expander service tag Fabric Engine QSFP28-DD port group Fabric Engine QSFP28-DD 8x25GE interfaces Fabric Expander assigned unit ID (virtual slot) Fabric Expander virtual ports
    403RPK2 1/1/1 1/1/17:1 71 1/71/1
    1/1/17:2 1/71/2
    1/1/17:3 1/71/3
    1/1/17:4 1/71/4
    1/1/18:1 1/71/5
    1/1/18:2 1/71/6
    1/1/18:3 1/71/7
    1/1/18:4 1/71/8
    NOTE In the show interface status output, the Fabric Switching Engine 8x25GE interfaces that map to Fabric Expander virtual ports display as dormant. 
    OS10# show interface status
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Port            Description     Status   Speed    Duplex   Mode Vlan Tagged-Vlans
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...
Eth 1/1/17:1                    dormant
Eth 1/1/17:2                    dormant
Eth 1/1/17:3                    dormant
Eth 1/1/17:4                    dormant
Eth 1/1/18:1                    dormant
Eth 1/1/18:2                    dormant
Eth 1/1/18:3                    dormant
Eth 1/1/18:4                    dormant
...
    You can also use the show interface command to display the Fabric Engine physical port-to-Fabric Expander virtual port mapping, and the operational status of the line. 
    OS10# show interface ethernet 1/1/30:3
Ethernet 1/1/30:3 is up, line protocol is dormant
Interface is mapped to ethernet1/77/7
  5. Verify the virtual ports on the Fabric Expander that are up and connected to servers in CONFIGURATION mode. Unit IDs 71 to 82 are used as virtual slot numbers 1/71 to 1/82 on the Fabric Expander. 
    OS10# show interface status
  6. Configure a Fabric Expander virtual port to transmit server traffic in CONFIGURATION mode. 
    OS10# interface ethernet node/virtual-slot/port
    • node is 1 for a Fabric Expander.
    • virtual-slot is the unit ID number assigned to the Fabric Expander, from 71 to 82.
    • port is the virtual port number 1 to 8.
View Fabric Expander virtual ports 
OS10# show interface status
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Port            Description     Status   Speed    Duplex   Mode Vlan Tagged-Vlans
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...
Eth 1/71/1                      up       25G      auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/71/2                      up       25G      auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/71/3                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/71/4                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/71/5                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/71/6                      up       25G      auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/71/7                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/71/8                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/72/1                      up       25G      auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/72/2                      up       25G      auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/72/3                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/72/4                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/72/5                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/72/6                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/72/7                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/72/8                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/73/1                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/73/2                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/73/3                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/73/4                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/73/5                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/73/6                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/73/7                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/73/8                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
...
Eth 1/81/1                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/81/2                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/81/3                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/81/4                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/81/5                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/81/6                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/81/7                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/81/8                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/82/1                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/82/2                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/82/3                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/82/4                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/82/5                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/82/6                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/82/7                      down     0        auto     A    1    - 
Eth 1/82/8                      down     0        auto     A    1    -

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