Users Guide

– The base-module ports operate in standalone 4x10GbE mode. You can configure these ports to

operate in 40GbE stacking mode. When configured for stacking, you cannot use 40GbE base-

module ports for uplinks.

– Ports on the 2-Port 40-GbE QSFP+ module operate only in 4x10GbE mode. You cannot use them

for stacking.

– Ports on the 4-Port 10-GbE SFP+ and 4-Port 10GBASE-T modules operate only in 10GbE mode.

For more information about how ports are numbered, refer to Port Numbering.

• Link aggregation: All uplink ports are configured in a single LAG (LAG 128).

• VLANs: All ports are configured as members of all (4094) VLANs. All VLANs are up and can send or

receive layer 2 traffic. For more information, refer to VLAN Membership.

• Data center bridging capability exchange protocol (DCBx): Server-facing ports auto-configure in

auto-downstream port roles; uplink ports auto-configure in auto-upstream port roles.

• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity and FCoE initiation protocol (FIP) snooping: The

uplink port channel (LAG 128) is enabled to operate in Fibre channel forwarder (FCF) port mode.

• Link layer discovery protocol (LLDP): Enabled on all ports to advertise management TLV and system

name with neighboring devices.

• Internet small computer system interface (iSCSI)optimization.

• Internet group management protocol (IGMP) snooping.

• Jumbo frames: Ports are set to a maximum MTU of 12,000 bytes by default.

• Link tracking: Uplink-state group 1 is automatically configured. In uplink state-group 1, server-facing

ports auto-configure as downstream interfaces; the uplink port-channel (LAG 128) auto-configures as

an upstream interface. Server-facing links are auto-configured to be brought up only if the uplink

port-channel is up.

• In VLT mode, port 9 is automatically configured as VLT interconnect ports. VLT domain configuration

is automatic. This includes peer-link, configured MAC, backup link and setting every port channel as

VLT port-channel.

Data Center Bridging Support

To eliminate packet loss and provision links with required bandwidth, Data Center Bridging (DCB)

enhancements for data center networks are supported.

The aggregator provides zero-touch configuration for DCB. The aggregator auto-configures DCBX port

roles as follows:

• Server-facing ports are configured as auto-downstream interfaces.

• Uplink ports are configured as auto-upstream interfaces.

In operation, DCBx auto-configures uplink ports to match the DCB configuration in the ToR switches to

which they connect.

The Aggregator supports DCB only in standalone mode.

FCoE Connectivity and FIP Snooping

Many data centers use Fiber Channel (FC) in storage area networks (SANs). Fiber Channel over Ethernet

(FCoE) encapsulates Fiber Channel frames over Ethernet networks.

Before You Start