White Papers

7 Automatically viewing the network switch physical connection between iDRAC & server network ports
2.1 Feature constraints
 This feature does not work if the switch does not send LLDP packets to its connected ports. iDRAC
interfaces displays Not Available for switch connection and switch port connection fields.
 The LLDP may not be implemented in some switches because it is not mandatory.
 The LLDP is not enabled by default on some switches. So the LLDP has to be enabled for this feature
to work on those switches. For example, Cisco switches.
 Only the PowerEdge Mezz/LOM/NDC/PCIe cards are supported.
o Only cards supporting NC-SI will support this feature, others will not.
o Only cards supporting LLDP decode will support this feature, others will not.
o Some cards supporting LLDP may not be able to support this feature if/when the OS has claimed
control of LLDP processing.
o The Mezz/NDC/LOM/PCIe add-in cards will have to support the new NC-SI command to retrieve
the TLV information from LLDP packet.
 If the IOM in the chassis is an IOA or a PowerConnect switch, this feature will not work for server
ports as the IOA or PowerConnect switch will block all the LLDP packets coming from the TOR
switch. The iDRAC interfaces will show “Not Available” for the fields that are part of this feature. If
LLDP is enabled in IOA, iDRAC interfaces will show the switch connection and switch port connection
information received from IOA.
 This feature will not work for iDRAC Dedicated Port Mode in the modular chassis if the CMC is not
connected to the TOR switch. The iDRAC interfaces will show “Not Available” for the fields that are
part of this feature.
 If LLDP is enabled in the IOA and other types of switches in the modular chassis, the switch
connection and switch port connection information will be received from IOA and not from the TOR
switch. LLDP is disabled by default in IOA.
 When CMCs are daisy chained, only the first CMC (CMC which is connected to TOR switch) will
receive LLDP packets. Other CMCs will not receive LLDP packets. So the iDRAC network port (only
in the case of dedicated mode) LLDP information will be not available in the blades whose
corresponding CMC is not the first CMC in the daisy chain. The LLDP information is also not available
for every CMC in the daisy chain which is not connected to TOR switch directly.