Dell PowerEdge M IO Aggregator User manual

Dell PowerEdge M I/O
Aggregator
Getting Started Guide
Regulatory Model: PEMIOAggregatr

Notes, Cautions, and Warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of
your computer.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if
instructions are not followed.
WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal
injury, or death.
____________________
Information in this publication is subject to change without notice.
© 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc.
is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL logo, Dell Precision™, OptiPlex™, Latitude™,
PowerEdge™, PowerVault™, PowerConnect™, OpenManage™, EqualLogic™, KACE™,
FlexAddress™ and Vostro™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel
®
, Pentium
®
, Xeon
®
, Core™ and
Celeron
®
are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. AMD
®
is a
registered trademark and AMD Opteron™, AMD Phenom™, and AMD Sempron™ are trademarks
of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Microsoft®, Windows®, Windows Server®, MS-DOS®and
Windows Vista®are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United
States and/or other countries. Red Hat Enterprise Linux®and Enterprise Linux®are registered
trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Novell®is a registered
trademark and SUSE ™ is a trademark of Novell Inc. in the United States and other countries. Oracle®
is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Citrix®, Xen®, XenServer®and
XenMotion®are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. in the United States
and/or other countries. VMware®, Virtual SMP®, vMotion®, vCenter®, and vSphere®are registered
trademarks or trademarks of VMWare, Inc. in the United States or other countries.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this publication to refer to either the entities claiming
the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and
trade names other than its own.
Regulatory Model PEMIOAggregatr
August 2012 P/N KGCK9 Rev. A00

Contents 3
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 Product Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3 Hardware Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Internal Ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Base Module with 40GbE Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
FlexIOTM Modules with Uplink Ports . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Port Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
USB Console Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
System and Port LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Site Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Unpacking the Aggregator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Package Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Unpacking Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4Contents
4 Installing and Configuring the Aggregator 16
Installing the Aggregator in a PowerEdge Chassis . . . 18
Connecting a Console Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Invoking the X-Loader and U-Boot CLIs . . . . . . . . . 21
Reconfiguring Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Before You Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Reconfiguration Using the CMC Interface . . . . . 22
Reconfiguration Using the CLI . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Aggregator Auto-Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
DCB Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
FCoE Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
iSCSI Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Link Aggregation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Link Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Configuring VLANs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Uplink LAG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Server-Facing LAGs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Stacking Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5 Assembling a Switch Stack . . . . . . . . . . 29
Cabling the Switch Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Configuring and Bringing Up a Stack . . . . . . . . . . 31
Managing a Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Master and Member Switches . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Stack Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Contents 5
6 Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7 Technical Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Chassis Physical Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Environmental Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Power Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
IEEE Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

6Contents

Introduction 7
Introduction
This document provides basic information about the Dell PowerEdge M I/O
Aggregator, including how to install the switch in the Dell PowerEdge
M1000e Enclosure and perform the initial configuration.
For more detailed information about any
of the basic installation steps , refer to
the
Dell PowerEdge M1000e Enclosure Owner's Manual on the Dell Support
website at http://support.dell.com/manuals.
Product Description
The I/O Aggregator is a zero-touch, layer 2 switch blade with two fixed 40GbE
ports on the base module and support for two optional plug-in modules. The
Aggregator operates in a Dell PowerEdge M1000e chassis, which can support
up to 32 servers and six I/O Aggregator blade switches.
The Aggregator runs the Dell Force10 Operating System (FTOS) and auto-
configures as an unmanaged switch with bridging and multiplexing
functionality, which transmits traffic as follows:
• GbE/10GbE connections through the midplane to up to 32 server ports in
the chassis
• 10GbE connections through uplink ports to top-of-rack (ToR) switches
• 40GbE connections through stacking ports to other I/O Aggregators in a
switch stack
In a data center network, the Aggregator functions as a flat layer 2 pass-
through switch that interoperates with Dell and third-party ToR devices.
The switch supports
data center bridging (DCB) features, and provides
seamless connectivity for a Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) server and
iSCSI storage data traffic.
In its default operational mode, the Aggregator requires no additional
configuration; network connectivity for servers in an M1000e chassis is
enabled. By simplifying switch configuration and management, the
Aggregator reduces complexity in a data center network.

8Hardware Overview
Hardware Overview
This section contains information about device characteristics and modular
hardware configurations for the Aggregator.
Internal Ports
The Aggregator provides thirty-two 1/10-Gigabit Ethernet internal ports. The
internal ports are connected to server blades through the M1000e chassis
midplane. Each port can operate in either 1GbE or 10GbE mode.
The Aggregator also provides an internal Ethernet interface—the out-of-band
(OOB) interface—which is dedicated to switch management. Traffic on this
port is segregated from operational network traffic on the switch ports and
cannot be switched or routed to the operational network.
Front Panel
Figure 1-1 shows the Aggregator front panel:
Figure 1-1. I/O Aggregator Front Panel
Base Module with 40GbE Ports
The Aggregator provides two fixed 40-Gigabit Ethernet ports on the base
module. By default, these ports operate in 4x10GbE mode with breakout cables
and support up to eight 10GbE uplinks. You can also use the base-module ports
as 40GbE links for stacking.
Expansion Slot 1
40GbE QSFP+ Ports
USB Console Port
Expansion Slot 0
USB Storage Port Activity and Link Status LEDs

Hardware Overview 9
FlexIOTM Modules with Uplink Ports
On the Aggregator, FlexIO plug-in modules (Figure 1-2) operate only as
uplinks; stacking is not supported. The following modules are supported in
the two expansion slots:
• 4-Port 10-Gigabit Ethernet module using SFP+ optics or direct-attach
cables (1m, 3m, or 5m DAC)
4-Port 10GBASE-T module using RJ-45 connector (copper) cables
NOTE: Only one 4-Port 10GBASE-T module is supported in an Aggregator.
NOTE: The 10M speed is not supported on the 4-Port 10GBASE-T module. Only
100M, 1G, and 10G speeds are supported.
• 2-Port 40-Gigabit Ethernet QSFP+ (SR or direct attach only) module only
for 10GbE SFP+ connections using 4x10GbE breakout cables.
Figure 1-2. I/O Aggregator: FlexIO Modules
4-Port 10GbE SFP+ Module
4-Port 10GBASE-T Module (100Mb/1GbE/10GbE)
2-Port 40GbE QSFP+ Module

10 Hardware Overview
Use the FlexIO modules in an Aggregator that operates in standalone or
stacking mode:
• In standalone mode, you can install any of the supported FlexIO modules
in two expansion slots. All ports operate at 10GbE to provide increased
bandwidth of up to 160Gbps for uplinks. Stacking is not supported.
• In stacking mode, only the 40GbE ports on the base module are used for
stacking. FlexIO modules are required for uplink connections.
Usage Notes:
• After you insert any FlexIO module into an empty slot, you must reload
the Aggregator for the module to be operational.
• You can hot swap FlexIO modules of the same type without having to
reboot the Aggregator. If you insert a different type of plug-in module, you
must reload the Aggregator for the new module to be recognized.
• All uplink ports are in the same 10GbE link aggregation group (LAG).
Tips for Aggregator standalone operation:
• If you use 16 servers in an M1000e and you want a 2:1 oversubscription,
you only need to use the base module ports in 8x10GbE mode.
• If you use 32 servers in an M1000e and you want a 2:1 oversubscription,
use the base-module ports in 8x10GbE mode and either a 2-Port 40GbE
QSFP+ module operating in 8x10GbE mode or two 4-Port 10GbE SFP+
modules. Use breakout cables with the 2-Port QSFP+ module.
Tips for Aggregator stacking operation:
• To provide uplink connectivity for the stack, you must use at least one
FlexIO module in either expansion slot on any Aggregator in the stack.
• To optimize redundancy and high availability, Dell Force10 recommends
that you use at least one FlexIO module for uplinks on each Aggregator in
a stack. If you do not use a FlexIO module on each stacked Aggregator for
uplink connectivity, in the event of a stack split, the server-facing ports on
Aggregators without an uplink connection are brought down.
All FlexIO modules, transceivers, and direct attach cables are sold separately.