IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124R User manual

Installation Guide
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124R,
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124F,
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124ER,
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124EF, and
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124DC
Type 0446 and 7309

Installation Guide
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124R,
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124F,
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124ER,
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124EF, and
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124DC
Type 0446 and 7309

Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the general
information in Appendix B on page 47, the Safety Information and
Environmental Notices and User Guide documents on the IBM Documentation CD, and the
Warranty Information document that comes with the product.
First Edition (May 2011)
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011.
US Government Users Restricted Rights – Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by
GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

Safety v
Safety

vi BNT RackSwitch G8124 Installation Guide
Important
Each caution and danger statement in this document is labeled with a number. This number
is used to cross reference an English-language caution or danger statement with translated
versions of the caution or danger statement in the Systems Safety Notices document.
For example, if a caution statement is labeled “D005,” translations for that caution
statement are in the Systems Safety Notices document under “D005.”
Be sure to read all caution and danger statements in this document before you perform the
procedures. Read any additional safety information that comes with the switch or optional
device before you install the device.

Safety vii

viii BNT RackSwitch G8124 Installation Guide

Safety ix

xBNT RackSwitch G8124 Installation Guide
Circuit breaker rating Minimum: 20 amps
Maximum: 20 amps
Wire size 16 AWG (IBM part number 90Y3538 DC power cable from PDP
output to server input)
1.31 mm2
Wiring terminal screw torque -- inch-pounds (IBM part number 90Y3538 provided with
connector, both ends)
-- newton-meters

Safety xi

xii BNT RackSwitch G8124 Installation Guide

©Copyright IBM Corp. 2011 xiii
Contents
Safety v
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
The IBM Documentation CD 2
Related Documentation 3
Notices and Statements in this Document 3
RackSwitch G8124 Features 4
Performance 4
Management Features 4
Software Features 4
Switch Components 6
Hardware Options 6
Switch Unit 6
Switch Ports 12
LEDs 15
Technical Specifications 17
Physical Characteristics 17
Environmental Specifications 17
Power Specifications 18
Chapter 2: Installing the RackSwitch G8124 19
Required Tools 19
Package Contents 19
Environmental Requirements 20
Preventing Electric Shock 20
Handling Static-Sensitive Devices 22
Installing the RackSwitch G8124 in a Standard Equipment Rack 23
Installing the RackSwitch G8124 in an iDataPlex Rack 26
Installing the RackSwitch G8124 in a 4-post Rack 29
Initializing the RackSwitch G8124 32

xiv BNT RackSwitch G8124 Installation Guide
Default Configuration 33
Configuring an IP Interface 34
Using the Boot Management Menu 35
Installing an SFP or SFP+ Transceiver 36
SFP+ Optical Transceiver 36
SFP Copper Transceiver 37
Troubleshooting 38
System LEDs Do Not Light 38
Port link LED Does Not Light 38
Temperature Sensor Warning 38
Switch Does Not Initialize (Boot) 39
Chapter 3: Replaceable Parts 41
Appendix A: Getting Help and Technical Assistance 43
Before You Call 43
Using the Documentation 44
Getting Help and Information from the World Wide Web 44
Software Service and Support 44
Hardware Service and Support 44
IBM Taiwan Product Service 45
Appendix B: Notices 47
Trademarks 48
Telecommunication Regulatory Statement 49
Important Notes 49
Particulate Contamination 49
Documentation Format 51

©Copyright IBM Corp. 2011 1
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
This Installation Guide provides information and instructions for installing the following products:
IBM®BNT™RackSwitch™G8124R, Type 0446
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124F, Type 7309
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124ER, Type 7309
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124EF, Types 1455 abd 7309
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124DC, Type 7309
For information about configuration and management of the switch, refer to your Command
Reference and the product release notes.
If firmware and documentation updates are available, you can download them from the IBM
website. The switch might have features that are not described in the documentation that comes
with the swtich, and the documentation might be updated occasionally to include information about
those features, or technical updates might be available to provide additional information that is not
included in the switch documentation.
Note – Changes are made periodically to the IBM website. Procedures for locating firmware and
documentation might vary slightly from what is described in this document.
To check for firmware and documentation updates, go to http://www.ibm.com/supportportal/. For
firmware updates, click Downloads. For documentation updates, click Documentation.

2BNT RackSwitch G8124 Installation Guide
The IBM Documentation CD
The IBM Documentation CD contains documentation for your switch in Portable Document Format
(PDF) and includes the IBM Documentation Browser to help you find information quickly.
Hardware and Software Requirements
The IBM Documentation CD requires the following minimum hardware and software:
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 3 or later), Windows 2000, or Red Hat® Linux.
100 MHz microprocessor.
32 MB of RAM.
Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 (or later) or xpdf, which comes with Linux operating systems.
Acrobat Reader software is included on the CD, and you can install it when you run the
Documentation Browser.
Using the Documentation Browser
Use the Documentation Browser to browse the contents of the CD, read brief descriptions of the
documents, and view documents, using Adobe Acrobat Reader or xpdf. The Documentation
Browser automatically detects the regional settings in use in your computer and displays the
documents in the language for that region (if available). If a document is not available in the
language for that region, the English-language version is displayed.
Use one of the following procedures to start the Documentation Browser:
If Autostart is enabled, insert the CD into the CD drive. The Documentation Browser starts
automatically.
If Autostart is disabled or is not enabled for all users, use one of the following procedures:
If you are using a Windows operating system, insert the CD into the CD drive and click
Start --> Run. In the Open field, type
e:\win32.bat
where e is the drive letter of the CD drive, and click OK.
If you are using Red Hat Linux, insert the CD into the CD drive; then, run the following
command from the /mnt/cdrom directory:
sh runlinux.sh

Introduction 3
Select switch drive from the Product menu. The Available Topics list displays all the documents
for your drive. Some documents might be in folders. A plus sign (+) indicates each folder or
document that has additional documents under it. Click the plus sign to display the additional
documents.
When you select a document, a description of the document is displayed under Topic Description.
To select more than one document, press and hold the Ctrl key while you select the documents.
Click View Book to view the selected document or documents in Acrobat Reader or xpdf. If you
selected more than one document, all the selected documents are opened in Acrobat Reader or xpdf.
To search all the documents, type a word or word string in the Search field and click Search. The
documents in which the word or word string is displayed are listed in order of the most occurrences.
Click a document to view it, and press Ctrl+F to use the Acrobat search function, or press Alt+F to
use the xpdf search function within the document.
Click Help for detailed information about using the Documentation Browser.
Related Documentation
For documentation about configuring your switch, see the RackSwitch G8124 Application Guide
and Command Reference.
For details about the switch information, statistics, and configuration parameters, see the
RackSwitch G8124 Command Reference.
Notices and Statements in this Document
The caution and danger statements in this document are also in the multilingual Safety Information
document, which is on the IBM® Documentation CD. Each statement is numbered for reference to
the corresponding statement in the Safety Information document.
The following notices and statements are used in this document:
Note: These notices provide important tips, guidance, or advice.
Important: These notices provide information or advice that might help you avoid
inconvenient or problem situations.
Attention: These notices indicate potential damage to programs, devices, or data. An attention
notice is placed just before the instruction or situation in which damage could occur.
Caution: These statements indicate situations that can be potentially hazardous to you. A
caution statement is placed just before the description of a potentially hazardous procedure step
or situation.
Danger: These statements indicate situations that can be potentially lethal or extremely
hazardous to you. A danger statement is placed just before thedescription of a potentially lethal
or extremely hazardous procedure step or situation.

4BNT RackSwitch G8124 Installation Guide
RackSwitch G8124 Features
This section provides an overview of RackSwitch G8124 features.
Performance
240 Gbps throughput (full duplex), non-blocking switching architecture
100% line rate at all packet sizes
Deterministic port-to-port latency under 700 nanoseconds with 64B packets
Management Features
Clients
Industry standard command-line interface (ISCLI)
Browser-based Interface (BBI)
BladeHarmony Manager
Protocols
SNMP v1, v2, v3
Secondary NTP support
DHCP
Software upgrades
Dual software images
Upgrade via serial, browser, or FTP/TFTP
Software Features
Security
Secure interface login & password
RADIUS and TACACS+
SSH v1, v2
HTTPS Secure Browser-based interface
Wire-speed filtering with Access Control Lists (ACLs)

Introduction 5
Layer 2
1024 VLANs (802.1Q), including Private VLANs
Multi-link trunking, compatible with Cisco EtherChannel
LACP (IEEE 802.3ad)
Spanning Tree (802.1D), Multiple Spanning Tree (802.1s),
Rapid Spanning Tree (802.1w), with Fast Uplink Convergence
16K forwarding database entries
Layer 3
128 configurable interfaces (static or DHCP)
IP forwarding
IGMP Snooping v1, v2, v3
4K ARP entries
RIP v1, v2
OSPF
Quality of Service
802.1p priority queues
Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) support
Availability
Layer 2 Failover
VRRP

6BNT RackSwitch G8124 Installation Guide
Switch Components
This section describes the RackSwitch G8124 hardware components.
Hardware Options
The following list provides an overview of G8124 hardware:
Switch unit
Mounting hardware
Standard rack mounting brackets and screws
IBM iDataPlex™rack mounting brackets and screws
4-post rack mounting brackets and screws
Switch Unit
Each RackSwitch G8124 series switch unit is a 1U rack-mountable 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch.
You can mount the G8124 in either the horizontal or vertical direction.
The RackSwitch G8124-E is a performance-enhanced switch with a faster management processor
for improved aggregation layer functionality. Both the RackSwitch G8124 and G8124-E have
identical Layer 2 and Layer 3 data plane performance characteristics.
The RackSwitch G8124 and G8124-E allow for flexible mounting of the switch, as follows:
Front-to-rear airflow
Rear-to-front airflow
The DC powered RackSwitch G8124 provides front-to-rear airflow.
Ports
The switch unit contains twenty-four 10Gb SFP+ slots, plus two management ports,
and one serial console port:
24 SFP+ slots
2 RJ-45 management ports
1 RS-232 console port (mini-USB)
Note – Shielded twisted pair cables are recommended for use in the RJ-45 management ports.