topic RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC in ExtremeSwitching (EXOS/Switch Engine)

X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

M_Nees — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 00:40:00 GMT

Today we have a very painful and time-killing problem. Be careful NOT to run into the same issue.

We using X440-G2 with 10GB GBICs on the Uplink ports (51-52 - with Dual 10GB LIC) linked to 2x X670-G2 also with 10GB GBICs.
Some of my collegues configured the X440-G2 BUT do NOT install the 10GB License.

If you connect that Switch to the CORE you does not get a link. But light comes out of the fibre cable and seemed to be OK. If you check transceiver information on CORE switch you can see that you have excellent signal - but the link on the CORE Switch does not come up! Damn!

If you have a look at the X440-G2 the log tells you that the 10GB Port have a 10GB GBIC but you do NOT have a 10GB license, so the speed is reduced to 1GB!
Does this make sense ?

The result is that the 10GBIC sending out a signal but a 10GB GBIC cannot never run in 1GB mode. So there will never ever be a link. Talking with some other network guys telling me that a very usual mistake a lot of people running into this pitfall.

From my point of view it was better if the developers disable the 10GB GBIC completely to avoid such tricky problems!

Regards,
Matthias

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

Drew_C — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 05:12:00 GMT

Hi Matthias,
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Your post has been shared with engineering and PLM and is making the rounds for how best to fix this. Myself or someone else on the team will keep you updated.

Thanks,
-Drew

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

Edward_Tsui — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 09:02:00 GMT

Hi Mattias,

Thanks for your info. Did you ever try to change x670 to 1G and see if the port come UP or not?

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

M_Nees — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 09:02:00 GMT

Hi Edward,
it is not possible to run a 10GB GBIC in 1GB mode. That not possible from the GBIC side and prohiboted on the EXOS CLI.

Regards

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

Curtis_Brabham — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 09:02:00 GMT

Yes you can run an SFP+ at 1G. You have to manually set the ports on both sides to 1G full duplex in the EXOS CLI:

configure auto off speed 1000 duplex full

I have SFP+'s actively configured on SFP ports in production (awaiting a switch replacement with additional SFP+ ports).

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

M_Nees — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 12:36:00 GMT

Hi Drew,

another idea to make this problem more obviously will be that the regarding LED of that port is blinking amber.

Regards

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

Drew_C — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 12:36:00 GMT

I like that idea - I'll share it with the team as well. Thanks.

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

M_Nees — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 11:03:00 GMT

Hi,

one more "field experience" - in germay we have a lot of IT racks / closets that are only accessable from front side (NOT from back side).

So placing the Uplink at rear not sometimes a little bit cumbersome. But i understand the space on a switch circuit board / fron panel is very limited.

But if the designers put the port indicator LEDs are also on the front panel is is easier to check is link is up or activity. (i mean that there are LEDs at rear beside that ports and additionally at front to have all port in view if you stand in front of that switch).

Regards

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

AnonymousM — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 11:03:00 GMT

The customer could install a mirror inside the rear door of the rack. This would bring the term "port mirroring" to a new level. Just kidding! 😉
I agree that this would be helpful and from the past I remember that we also once had such kind of a solution. We will discuss this with PLM, but I don't think that we can change the HW design of the existing switches. But for new models this is a valid input.

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

M_Nees — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 11:03:00 GMT

Additional note - during a current customer installation project, i realize that X440-G2 Switches does have LEDs of rear ports (49-52) at front !!
That is nice.
(it seem that i was blind last time!)

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

Ian_Broadway — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 15:57:00 GMT

as an additional query to the licensing of the 10Gb uplinks. they come in two flavours. A dual and a quad license.

16542 Dual 10GbE Upgrade License
License that converts the two non-stack 1GbE SFP ports to be 10GbE SFP+
16543 Quad 10GbE Upgrade License
License that converts four 1GbE SFP ports to be 10GbE SFP+

So the quad is to enable the 4 SFP ports on the front for 10Gb? and the dual for the back ports? but there are 4 of them on the back? can you also use the 10GBase-T for uplinks with this license? as interconnects to other switches in the same rack for example?

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

Drew_C — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 15:57:00 GMT

The license enables the four 10G ports on the back of the 24 and 48 port models.
http://documentation.extremenetworks.com/summit/Summit_Family_HW_Install/Switch_ovrvu/c_x440-g2-48t-...
Regarding the 10GBase-T on the 48 port models, they share a port number with the last two 10G SFP+ ports (combo-ports).

On the 12 port models, the 10G ports are on the front of the switch.
http://documentation.extremenetworks.com/summit/Summit_Family_HW_Install/Switch_ovrvu/c_x440-g2-12p-...

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

Ian_Broadway — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 15:57:00 GMT

Great thank you

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

M_Nees — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 02:32:00 GMT

Hi Drew,

1 month after our discussion, can you tell me something about how this issue could be improved or what the PLM think about that ??

Regards,
Matthias

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

Drew_C — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 02:32:00 GMT

Hi Matthias,
I actually did some followup work on this yesterday and didn't get a chance to respond.

A CR has been created to enhance the show ports configuration command to indicate that an optic is not licensed. This improvement is currently set to make its way into EXOS 22.2+.

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

Drew_C — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 00:57:00 GMT

Matthias, I was asked to test this out in a demo build. For this test, I installed a mix of 1G and 10G optics with a Dual-port 10G license. To address your concerns, the development team has added a "$" flag to show the 10G optic is unlicensed, which you can see on port 27 below. Thanks for your feedback!

(Demo) X440G2-24t-10G4.2 # show port 25-28 conf no
Port Configuration
Port Virtual Port Link Auto Speed Duplex Flow Load Media
router State State Neg Cfg Actual Cfg Actual Cntrl Master Pri Red
================================================================================
25 VR-Default E R ON AUTO AUTO SX
26 VR-Default E R OFF 10000 FULL SF+_SR
27 VR-Default E R ON AUTO AUTO $SF+_SR
28 VR-Default E R ON AUTO AUTO SX
================================================================================
> indicates Port Display Name truncated past 8 characters
Link State: A-Active, R-Ready, NP-Port Not Present, L-Loopback
Port State: D-Disabled, E-Enabled, L-License Disabled
Media: !-Unsupported, $-Unlicensed
Media Red: * - use "show port info detail" for redundant media type
Flow Cntrl: Shows link partner's abilities. NONE if Auto Neg is OFF

(Demo) X440G2-24t-10G4.3 # show port 27 info det
Port: 27
Virtual-router: VR-Default
Type: SF+_SR (Unlicensed)
Random Early drop: Unsupported
Admin state: Enabled with auto-speed sensing auto-duplex
Link State: Ready
Link Ups: 0 Last: --
Link Downs: 0 Last: --
......

RE: X440-G2 10GB Uplink - bad snare if you miss 10GB LIC

M_Nees — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 00:57:00 GMT

I like this !!
Thanks for accepting my feedback.