MXL 10/40GbE Network connection for each blade server in PowerEdge M1000e Chassis

I managed putty into both MXL 10/40GbE module and ran interface check, A2 module port 51, 52 are showing down. and from the description, it said for uplink connection, does that mean A2 module does have uplink connection at all? (the corresponding port in A1 are showing up)

Flyheart,

You're correct in that 0/51 and 0/52 are the external ports for the uplink switch, but to identify if it is a bad card or if the uplink is down, you can run "show running te 0/51" and "show running te 0/52" on both A1 and A2 to compare the config, then "show interface status te 0/51" and  "show interface status te 0/52" to check if the port is up or not and the line protocol is up or not. 

Another route would be that you can try pulling the card and swapping them to test if this is indeed the case, but I wouldn't start there.

Let me know what you see.

Thanks Chris, 

MXL 10/40GbE was managed by network team, and they helped check with the feedback:

The running config of all te0/51 and te0/52 ports are: (Guess this is A1, Working one)

No ip address

Switchport

No shutdown

On A2, the port is up but the line protocol is Down.  Not sure why that would be unless it’s being blocked by spanning-tree protocol or something like it

From what I heard, the A1 and A2 is not for redundant purpose, they should be for link aggregation. 

I still have another question, is there a way from CMC to find out the network port mapping for the blade server?  There is time I need disconnect the server from network when its running, currently I have no control/visibility of that part at all.

Also, can I use Dell IO manager to manage my MXL 10/40GbE? I watch some youtube about the Dell IO manager, its convenient to use.

Many thanks again, Chris

FH

Hi, if I may, would you be able to refer to this? https://dell.to/3BB2xrS

Good morning Chris,

Here are more update about the setup, it looks like the A1 and A2 are connected 2 switches, and the 2 switches stacked, A1 and A2 are not stacked, I suspect this kind of setup might cause loop hence the A2 uplink is blocked by spanning tree protocol.

I am wondering if stack A1 and A2, will that will be the ultimate solution?

Thanks again

FH

Flyheart, 

Sorry for the delay, let me research this further and I will be back with you shortly.

Thanks Yong,

I read through the document and its quite helpful, however it will be great if we have some GUI management solution for those MXL module, like if I can disable network port for certain blade if need, also to monitor server network traffic in GUI. 

Not sure how that Dell IO manager do, that tool looks impressive.

Thanks

FH

Thanks Chris, for the valuable information. One of my teammate went to DC install A2 earlier this months, from the M1000e chassis log, both A1 and A2 have been removed and reinserted in a few times, also been rebooted, I guessed there was issue before they pass the problem to me.

As shown in my original post,  A2 uplink is down, and I also tried to reboot A2 last week, no help, I was told that A2 was replaced with new piece of hardware, we have network and Iscsi (Storage) connection on the same module, I am just worry if they mess up the SFP module if people don't know that.

I will see how we can do, many thanks Chris

FH

Flyheart,

Sorry for the delay.

To answer the first question, there is no GUI for MXL on M1000e Chassis. 

Now regarding the loop, if A1 and A2 are not connected via their front ports there should be no blocking occurring, because to the connected 2-stack switches - A1 is a stub and A2 is a stub. There is no loop formed that is, A1 and A2 have no internal connectivity to each other (you could technically pass traffic through a host and back into the other

Now a quick question, has that device -A2 - been reloaded since that card was installed, since they can be hot added?

As only the hot swapped ports on A2 are physically down. This is not the mechanism that spanning-tree uses to block. They would still be physically up but blocked by spanning-tree, not down.

So for the second question, that is not an STP issue at all, it is back to the answer before that you would need to check the physical interface at layer 1 on A2, and the Uplink Switch. 

You may also want to reboot the Switch A2