Users Guide

• IGMP snooping in all VLANs except the default VLAN (enabled)

• VLAN configuration (all ports belong to all VLANs)

You can change any of these default settings using the CLI. Refer to the appropriate chapter for details.

NOTE: You can also change many of the default settings using the chassis management controller (CMC) interface. For

information about how to access the CMC to configure an Aggregator, refer to the

Dell PowerEdge M1000e Enclosure

Hardware Owner's Manual

Dell Chassis Management Controller (CMC) User’s Guide

on the Dell Support website at http://

support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pem/en/index.htm.

Other Auto-Configured Settings

After the Aggregator powers on, it auto-configures and is operational with software features enabled, including:

• 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 VLANs.

• Data Center Bridging Capability Exchange Protocol (DCBX)

• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity

• FCoE Initiation Protocol (FIP) snooping

• Hybrid ports: Ports are administratively up and auto-configured to operate as hybrid ports to transmit tagged and untagged VLAN

traffic.

• iSCSI optimization

• IGMP snooping

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

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

• Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP): Enabled on all ports.

• Link tracking: Enables server-facing links to be brought up only if the uplink port-channel (LAG 128) is up.

• Stacking: Stacking is supported only on the 40GbE ports on the base module. A single stack is limited to six Aggregators in the same

chassis. Up to three stacks are supported in an M1000e chassis. To configure a switch stack, you must use the CLI. For more

information, refer to Stacking Commands.

DCB Support

DCB enhancements for data center networks are supported to eliminate packet loss and provision links with required bandwidth.

The Aggregator provides zero-touch configuration for DCB. The Aggregator auto-configures DCBX port roles to match the DCBX

configuration in the ToR switches to which it connects through its uplink ports.

The Aggregator supports DCB only in standalone mode and not in the stacking mode.

FCoE Connectivity

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

Channel frames over Ethernet networks.

On an Aggregator, the internal ports support FCoE connectivity and connect to the converged network adapter (CNA) in blade servers.

FCoE allows Fibre Channel to use 10-Gigabit Ethernet networks while preserving the Fibre Channel protocol.

The Aggregator also provides zero-touch configuration for FCoE configuration. The Aggregator auto-configures to match the FCoE

settings used in the ToR switches to which it connects through its uplink ports.

Before You Start