Concept Guide
Table Of Contents
- Dell EMC SmartFabric Services User Guide Release 1.0
- About this guide
- SFS fundamentals
- Setting up SFS
- Deploying and managing a fabric
- Access fabric setup options
- Update default fabric, switch names, and descriptions
- Create uplink for external network connectivity
- Breakout switch ports
- Configure jump host
- Update network configuration
- Onboard a server onto the fabric
- Edit default fabric settings
- Restore fabric configuration
- Manage network profiles
- Manage routing profiles
- Access fabric setup options
- SFS with VxRail
- SFS with PowerEdge MX
- SFS for Isilon/PowerScale back-end fabric
- SFS commands
- smartfabric l3fabric enable
- smartfabric vlti
- show logging smartfabric
- show smartfabric cluster
- show smartfabric cluster member
- show smartfabric configured-server
- show smartfabric configured-server configured-server-interface
- show smartfabric details
- show smartfabric discovered-server
- show smartfabric discovered-server discovered-server-interface
- show smartfabric networks
- show smartfabric nodes
- show smartfabric personality
- show smartfabric uplinks
- show smartfabric upgrade-status
- show smartfabric validation-errors
- show switch-operating-mode
- Appendix
● Pair of IP addresses to be assigned to the VLT pair
● VRRP gateway IP address for VIP
L3 VLAN network contains a list of IP addresses and a gateway IP address. Optionally, you can specify DHCP relay addresses.
You can configure and attach a L3 VLAN network to an uplink. Each VLTi uplink interface contains an IP address that is
allocated from the list of IP addresses that are configured on the L3 VLAN network.
L3 Routed network
L3 routed network is used to assign IP address on a single interface. L3 routed network contains a list of IP addresses and a
gateway IP address. Optionally, you can specify DHCP relay addresses. L3 routed network can be configured on a leaf or a spine
switch. L3 routed network can be attached to an uplink. Each uplink interface contains an IP address that is allocated from the
list of IP addresses that are configured on the L3 routed network. An LACP port channel cannot be the remote end for these
uplinks. If gateway IP address is specified, then VRRP is enabled and the switches configure this IP address as the gateway IP
address. Attach this network to any uplink that has a single interface. This network can only be attached to a single entity.
Multirack L3 VLAN network
Multirack L3 VLAN network is a template that contains rack-specific IP configurations for a L3 VLAN. You can configure IPv4
attributes for each rack in an NSX-T deployment consisting of multirack leaf and spine topology. A rack holds a pair of switches
that are configured with VLT. The rack identifier is the same as the fabric ID. A rack containing a single switch without VLT does
not support multirack L3 VLAN network.
In an NSX-T topology that is connected to an SFS cluster, you can create a multi rack L3 VLAN network. Specify the network
identifier, L3 VLAN ID, and list of rack-specific IPv4 configurations for this network. Attach the created network as untagged or
tagged on any uplink or server interface of the rack. After you attach the network, SFS automatically creates a L3 VLAN and
applies the rack-specific IP configurations to the respective rack within the topology. You can modify the IPv4 configuration for
a specific rack in the multi rack L3 VLAN network.
NOTE:
For faster traffic convergence, Dell Technologies recommends setting the BGP keepalive timer to 1 second and
hold-time to 3 seconds on the NSX-T tier-0 node.
Uplinks
This information explains the types of uplinks that you can create in a fabric.
L2 uplinks
You can configure L2 uplinks only on the leaf switches in a fabric. L2 uplinks are a set of user-selected ports that belong to same
VLT leaf switches in which the L2 network is applied. The L2 uplink from the leaf switches is either an LACP or a static LAG.
SFS creates a VLT LAG for connected ports. If the ports are from a single device, the VLT LAG is a single armed VLT LAG. In
case these ports exist on multiple switches, a VLT or LAG is formed across these ports. This LAG can be made as an access
point for a VXLAN L2 network.
L3 uplinks
You can configure L3 uplinks on a leaf or spine switch. SFS supports L3 routed or L3 VLAN uplinks.
With L3 routed uplinks, point-to-point links are required between the switches with L3 uplinks and the external switches. With
L3 VLAN, all uplinks are in a LAG, and an IP address is assigned to the VLAN containing the LAG. Point-to-point IP networks
and addresses must be planned for each physical link in the L3 uplink. Each leaf switch in the fabric needs an IP address on the
external Management VLAN, and an anycast gateway address on the same VLAN. The virtual router or anycast gateway address
is shared by all leaf switches in the fabric.
Routing profiles
SFS supports eBGP and static routing profiles.
Static route profile—A static route profile is a routing template that contains a network prefix and the next hop IP address.
During uplink configuration, you can associate this profile to the uplinks created on one or more switches in the fabric. When this
profile is created, a route with the specified prefix and next hop IP address is configured on the switch.
Appendix
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