Users Guide
Table Of Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 SmartFabric Services for PowerEdge MX: An overview
- 3 SmartFabric mode requirements, guidelines, and restrictions
- 3.1 Create multi-chassis management group
- 3.2 Upstream network requirements
- 3.3 VLAN scaling guidelines
- 3.4 Configuring port speed and breakout
- 3.5 Switch slot placement for SmartFabric mode
- 3.6 Switch-to-Switch cabling
- 3.7 NIC teaming guidelines
- 3.8 Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) behavior
- 3.9 Other restrictions and guidelines
- 4 Creating a SmartFabric
- 4.1 Physically cable MX chassis and upstream switches
- 4.2 Define VLANs
- 4.3 Create the SmartFabric
- 4.4 Configure uplink port speed or breakout, if needed
- 4.5 Create Ethernet uplink
- 4.6 Configure Fibre Channel universal ports
- 4.7 Create Fibre Channel uplinks
- 4.8 Configuring the upstream switch and connect uplink cables
- 5 Deploying a server
- 6 SmartFabric operations
- 7 Switch operations
- 8 Validating the SmartFabric deployment
- 9 SmartFabric troubleshooting
- 9.1 Troubleshooting errors encountered for port group breakout
- 9.2 Troubleshooting Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
- 9.3 Verify VLT/vPC configuration on upstream switches
- 9.4 Discovery of FEM and compute sleds
- 9.5 Troubleshooting uplink errors
- 9.6 Troubleshooting FC/FCoE
- 9.7 SmartFabric Services – Troubleshooting commands
- 10 Uplink configuration scenarios
- 10.1 Scenario 1 - SmartFabric deployment with Dell EMC PowerSwitch Z9100-ON upstream switches
- 10.2 Scenario 2 - SmartFabric connected to Cisco Nexus 3232C switches
- 10.3 Scenario 3: Connect MX9116n FSE to Fibre Channel storage - NPIV Proxy Gateway mode
- 10.4 Scenario 4: Connect MX9116n FSE to Fibre Channel storage - FC Direct Attach
- 10.5 Scenario 5: Connect MX5108n to Fibre Channel storage - FSB
- 10.6 Scenario 6: Configure Boot from SAN
- A Hardware used in this document
- B Dell EMC Unity information
- C Additional information
- D Validated components
- E Technical resources
- F Support and feedback
19 Dell EMC PowerEdge MX SmartFabric Configuration and Troubleshooting Guide
This mode is supported on both the MX9116n FSE and the MX5108n Ethernet Switch.
S4148U-ON
(NPG mode)
S4148U-ON
(NPG mode)
Unity 500F
MX5108n
FSB mode
(Leaf 2)
MX5108n
FSB mode
(Leaf 1)
VLT
MX7000 chassis
ToR switch 2
ToR switch 1
FC SwitchFC Switch
Unity 500F
Unity 500F
Controller A Controller B
VLT
FC SAN A
FC SAN B
FCoE SAN A
FCoE SAN B
FCoE (FSB) Network to Dell EMC Unity through NPG switch
For more information on configuration and deployment, see Section 10.5.
2.7 Networks and automated QoS
In addition to assigning VLANs to server profiles, SmartFabric automates QoS settings based on the Network
Type specified. Figure 6 shows that when defining a VLAN, one of 11 options are pre-defined.
Network types available in SmartFabric mode
Table 4 lists the network types and related settings. The QoS group is the numerical value for the queues
available in SmartFabric mode. Available queues include 2 through 5. Queues 1, 6, and 7 are reserved.
Note: In SmartFabric mode, an administrator cannot change the default weights for the queues.