Force10 - group command to create multiple vlans

·         “group” command can be used to create multiple vlans and apply any common bulk configuration to all the vlans

·         “range” command is used to apply bulk configuration to range of existing vlans(if they are already created)

Sample,

Creating vlan and adding the interface to it	Adding interface to existing vlan
New_MXL_iSCSI_C1(conf)#interface group vlan 10 - 12 New_MXL_iSCSI_C1(conf-if-group-vl-10-12)#tag te 0/2	New_MXL_iSCSI_C1(conf)#interface range vlan 10 - 15 New_MXL_iSCSI_C1(conf-if-range-vl-10-15)#tag te 0/2

Please note that “,”(comma) can be used for non-consecutive vlans.

ESX 5.x and Broadcom/Intel CNA - FCoE issue

Please note that we are currently seeing a problem with VMware ESX and FCoE deployments. Following are the details of the problem.

What is the problem

VMWare ESX servers may fail to establish FCoE sessions with storage devices when Software FCoE adapter capability is enabled on the servers. When CNA/NIC modules that support partial FCoE offload (Broadcom and Intel only) are used, VMware ESX server’s Software FCoE adapter has to be enabled to access LUNs over FCoE.  ESX’s Software FCoE adapter has a software defect that triggers the FCoE connectivity problems when connected to the S5000. 

How does it impact the customer environment

VMware ESX servers may take a long time or fail to connect to storage devices after rebooting the S5000, the server, or disabling/enabling the interfaces between the server and the S5000.

Who gets impacted by this problem

Any customer with the following environment will get impacted.

-          VMware ESX server with Broadcom or Intel CNA connecting to the S5000 either directly or through MXL/IOA (FSB). 

This issue does not affect VMWare ESX servers deployed with QLogic or Emulex CNAs, which have hardware FCoE offload capability enabled by default.

What is being done

Dell Networking engineering team is actively engaged with VMware to fix this issue. VMware support has already reproduced and acknowledged that this is a problem with ESX 5.x. Furthermore, they have forwarded the problem to VMware engineering for a fix. So far VMware has not given us an expected time to provide the fix.

What is the recommendation

We are fully engaged with VMware to resolve this issue. However, until the issue is resolved by VMware, we will have to pursue the following options.

-          Any FCoE deployments using VMware ESX, please use QLogic or Emulex CNA instead of Broadcom or Intel.

o   Also, please ensure that there is a case open for it with Dell support and VMware support.

-          If the customer does not have VMware ESX servers then it is ok to use Broadcom or Intel CNAs in the environment.

Saleem Muhammad

Dell  |  Product Management

5480 Great America Parkway | Santa Clara, CA  95054

Desk:  (408) 571-3118 | Saleem_Muhammad@dell.com

DELL and VMware VSAN

Midway through the year, VMware changed their storage controller certification by requiring all of it to process through their lab, which is a bottle-neck.  PERC9 certification, including the H330, is in process but will not likely be approved before Q4.  In addition to the H330 having slightly less than a 256 queue depth, VMware is not entirely ready for 12gb SAS, so the testing / validation is taking more time than expected.  Keep in mind 13G vSphere support requires v5.5 U2 at the minimum for VSAN (v5.1 U2 will also work, but does not support VSAN).  Tom, I’d recommend syncing that customer up with the Solutions Center to do a 13G POC with the H730 if they want to test now.  Until we get a successful engineering check on the configuration, I’d be reluctant to tell them what to purchase at present.

On pass-through, the thing you will run into from VMware is them pushing pass-through since it enables single-drive replacement in the event of failure, instead of having to take down an entire node to replace one drive as would be the case for RAID0.  Considering it is still difficult to identify the physical location of a failed drive in a VSAN environment without either OME or the OpenManage integration into vCenter, you can argue that either way for the benefits of PERC.

We have a VSAN information guide posted to the documentation for ESXi, out at dell.com/virtualizationsolutions under VMware ESXi v5.x.  Page 7 of the VSAN information guide lists the storage controllers we’ve tested, which includes the H710, H710P, and the LSI 9207-8i.

For 11G servers, we have done NO certification of that generation as a “Ready Node”, meaning no Dell engineering has stood up an 11G cluster.  The VSAN compatibility list only requires certification of the storage controller, HDDs, and SSDs, so as long as all of those components are there, and the server is v5.5 U1 or higher certified (which most 11G are) VMware at least will support it.  VSAN OEM will only be available on 12G and newer.

And, since this is the Blades-Tech forum, I’d restate DAS still isn’t officially supported by VSAN (even if it works), so neither Blades nor VRTX are recommended VSAN targets at present.  The next major release of vSphere in 2015 will support JBOD, and we’ll look at certifications again in that time frame.

Damon Earley

Hypervisor Product Marketing

Dell | Product Group – Systems Management

office + 1 800 289 3355 x7242458, direct 1 512 724 2458

damon_earley@dell.com

Force10: restore factory-defaults

This command can be used to remove stack information. Yes, even the sticky stuff left in NVRAM. This is much, much easier for our customers to convert stacked units (especially those remote to the equipment).

Upgrade the stack to 9.5 or 9.6 and then abort BMP when prompted  

1)  Use the following command to set the switch to factory default, including the stacking ports     

    #restore factory-defaults stack-unit all clear-all

     Proceed: yes

2) When prompted about BMP, select A:

To continue with the standard manual interactive mode, it is necessary to abort BMP.

Press A to abort BMP now.

Press C to continue with BMP.

Press L to toggle BMP syslog and console messages.

Press S to display the BMP status.

[A/C/L/S]: A

3) Check to make sure that after the reboot the reload-type will be normal-reload

Dell#

Dell#show reload-type

Reload-Type                :   bmp [Next boot : normal-reload]

auto-save                  :   disable

config-scr-download        :   enable

dhcp-timeout               :   disable

vendor-class-identifier    :

retry-count                :   0

4) reload

Details on the command included here (can be found in the most recent Program Status).

In OS 9.5, we introduced a new command to reset the switch to factory default mode. The command is Dell# restore factory-defaults stack-unit all clear-all It does the following:

•Deletes the startup configuration

•Clears the NOVRAM and Boot variables, depending on the arguments passed

•Enables BMP

•Resets the user ports to their default native modes (ie., non-stacking, no 40G to 4x10G breakouts, etc.)

•Removes all CLI users Then, the command reloads the switch in a similar state to a brand new device Restore does not change the current OS images and partition from which the switch will boot up. Likewise, restore does not delete any of the files you store in the SD (except startup-config)

Force10: 40GB to 4 X 10GB breakout cable

From: Bean, Bob
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 09:08 AM Central Standard Time
To: Cassels, George; Beck, J; Pereira, Jacobo; WW Networking Domain
Subject: RE: 40GB to 4 X 10GB breakout cable

On the FTOS side use:

intf-type cr4 autoneg


-----Original Message-----
From: Cassels, George
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 08:28 AM Central Standard Time
To: Beck, J; Pereira, Jacobo; WW Networking Domain
Subject: RE: 40GB to 4 X 10GB breakout cable

So far, we've used the following commands...

service unsupported-transceiver
no errdisable detect cause gbic-invalid

Now it doesn't errdisable, but still goes down/down with the same error as mentioned below.

________________________________________
From: Beck, J
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 9:20 AM
To: Cassels, George; Pereira, Jacobo; WW Networking Domain
Subject: RE: 40GB to 4 X 10GB breakout cable

Have you set the command on the Cisco side to support noncertified transcievers?


Excuse any misspelled words as this is sent from a smart phone.

John Beck | Dell
Office of Technology and Architecture | CTO

-----Original Message-----
From: Cassels, George
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 08:17 AM Central Standard Time
To: Pereira, Jacobo; WW Networking Domain
Subject: RE: 40GB to 4 X 10GB breakout cable


Jacobo,
     It is Option A below...
________________________________________
From: Pereira, Jacobo
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 9:09 AM
To: Cassels, George; WW Networking Domain
Subject: RE: 40GB to 4 X 10GB breakout cable

What type of breakout are you using?

a) QSFP+ to 4xSFP+ ?
b) QSFP+ Transceiver with MTP to 4xLC cable?

-----Original Message-----
From: Cassels, George
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 07:59 AM Central Standard Time
To: WW Networking Domain
Subject: 40GB to 4 X 10GB breakout cable


I am doing some testing at a customer site with the Z9000 to Cisco 10GB switch.  When we try to use the 40GB to 10GB breakout cable we are getting the following error that disables the ports on the cisco side.

Duplicate vendor-id and serial number

Setup is a two port connection setup in a LAG using LACP.

Is there any known fixes around this issue?  Also there is no issue if you plug in just one of the ports on the 10GB side.

Thanks,
George

USB serial adapter in FreeBSD

Last modified: Jun. 13, 2009 Contents 1 - Summary 2 - Kernel options 3 - Plug in USB serial adapter 4 - Connect to router 1 - Summary This guide explains how to use a USB serial adapter in FreeBSD. It also explains how to connect to a device like a router over a serial connection. As an example we will connect to a Cisco router. This has been tested in FreeBSD 7.0 and 7.1. 2 - Kernel options You will need to have the following options in your kernel. device uhci # UHCI PCI->USB interface device ohci # OHCI PCI->USB interface device ehci # EHCI PCI->USB interface (USB 2.0) device usb # USB Bus (required) device ugen # Generic device ucom # USB serial support device uplcom # USB support for Prolific PL-2303 serial adapters If you didn't already have them in your kernel you will need to reboot before using the USB serial adapter. 3 - Plug in USB serial adapter Log in with a normal user account. Plug in the USB serial adapter into the computer and check to make sure it was detected properly. # dmesg | tail -n 1 ucom0: Prolific Technology Inc. USB-Serial Controller, class 0/0, rev 1.10/3.00, addr 2 on uhub0 Find what the actual device is listed as. # ls -l /dev/cuaU* crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 0, 116 Mar 2 18:54 /dev/cuaU0 crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 0, 117 Mar 2 18:54 /dev/cuaU0.init crw-rw---- 1 uucp dialer 0, 118 Mar 2 18:54 /dev/cuaU0.lock In our example it's listed as /dev/cuaU0. 4 - Connect to router Connect a serial cable from the USB serial adapter to the console port on the back of the Cisco router. Type the following and press [Enter] to connect. # sudo cu -l /dev/cuaU0 -s 9600 Connected User Access Verification Username: xxx Password: xxx Welcome to router.test.com! router> When you are done type exit. router>exit router con0 is now available Press RETURN to get started. Type '~.' to exit. Press 'Shift+~' then period. ~ [EOT]

Force10 Internal Firmware repository

The below link has all the patch releases – but not sure u can access it.

http://intranet.dell.com/dept/aes/Tools/Force10GS/Force10TAC/Force10Esc/Lists/Patch%20release%20repository/AllItems.aspx