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FEX Uplink and Server Side Ports

dakota2828
Level 1
Level 1

I am very new to the UCS environment and have to get up to speed fairly quickly. I have decided to start with the Blade chassis. But have a few questions.

  I am hoping someone can clarify how serverside ports are assigned to uplink ports withing a 2204XP and 2208XP.

  My understanding is that server side ports are assigned to uplinks based on the number of uplink configured to the FI.

  Once the FEX is initialised the ports are hardcoded.

 

  Assuming 2  (6200 series) FI and 2 ( 2204) FEX,

  2 uplinks from each FEX to thier respective FI

  8 half width blades in the chassis.

 

My understanding is;

UpLink 1  port would be assigned  Blades ( 1, 3, 5 7) and Uplink 2  Blades ( 2, 4, 6, 8)

Question: Which ports are active for each blade and on which FEX.

   For Example  Blade 1 assigned to Uplink 1 on FEX A with failover on FEX B  uplink 1

                       Blade 3 assigned to Uplink 1 on FEX B with failover on FEX A uplink 1

Thanks in advance folks..

2 Accepted Solutions

Accepted Solutions

Keny Perez
Level 8
Level 8

Hello and welcome to the community,

"My understanding is that server side ports are assigned to uplinks based on the number of uplink configured to the FI."

The server ports are assigned to uplinks ports based on either automatic (load balanced through the uplink interfaces available) or manual pinning (LAN Pin Groups hard coded)

2 FIs and 2 IOMs 2204 with 2 cables on each IOM: "UpLink 1  port would be assigned  Blades ( 1, 3, 5 7) and Uplink 2  Blades ( 2, 4, 6, 8)"  << This is correct, odd blades through odd ports and even blades through even ports.

Which ports are active for each blade and on which FEX.?

In this case with a 2204, the IOM provides 16 internal ports, 2 for each blade and you can check which of those two is active with the command "Show platform software woodside sts" from the FEX mode which is achieved with the follwoing commands:

UCS# connect iom

fex-1# Show platform software woodside sts

You can also go to the vNIC itself in the "Servers" tab by going to the Service Profile> Network and then double click in the vNIC and there you will see the configuration:

For Example:  Blade 1 assigned to Uplink 1 on FEX A with failover on FEX B  uplink 1

                       Blade 3 assigned to Uplink 1 on FEX B with failover on FEX A uplink 1

This will be the case if you have the "Chassis/FEX Discovery Policy" set in the "Link Grouping Preference" to "None" instead of "Port Channel"; if it is "Port Channel" it will not fail untill all the other links fail in the same IO module, see below

NOTE: this option is only valid if your hardware is ALL second generation, in other words, this does not work with 61xx Fabric Interconnects or 2104 IOMs

I hope this helps, if it does, please rate it.

-Kenny

Check note about limitation in the port channel feature between the IOM and Fabrics Message was edited by: Keny Perez

View solution in original post

It was my pleasure, I hope to see you more often in the community.

Could you please mark the question as answered, for other users in the future

Good luck falling in love with UCS  

-Kenny

View solution in original post

3 Replies 3

Keny Perez
Level 8
Level 8

Hello and welcome to the community,

"My understanding is that server side ports are assigned to uplinks based on the number of uplink configured to the FI."

The server ports are assigned to uplinks ports based on either automatic (load balanced through the uplink interfaces available) or manual pinning (LAN Pin Groups hard coded)

2 FIs and 2 IOMs 2204 with 2 cables on each IOM: "UpLink 1  port would be assigned  Blades ( 1, 3, 5 7) and Uplink 2  Blades ( 2, 4, 6, 8)"  << This is correct, odd blades through odd ports and even blades through even ports.

Which ports are active for each blade and on which FEX.?

In this case with a 2204, the IOM provides 16 internal ports, 2 for each blade and you can check which of those two is active with the command "Show platform software woodside sts" from the FEX mode which is achieved with the follwoing commands:

UCS# connect iom

fex-1# Show platform software woodside sts

You can also go to the vNIC itself in the "Servers" tab by going to the Service Profile> Network and then double click in the vNIC and there you will see the configuration:

For Example:  Blade 1 assigned to Uplink 1 on FEX A with failover on FEX B  uplink 1

                       Blade 3 assigned to Uplink 1 on FEX B with failover on FEX A uplink 1

This will be the case if you have the "Chassis/FEX Discovery Policy" set in the "Link Grouping Preference" to "None" instead of "Port Channel"; if it is "Port Channel" it will not fail untill all the other links fail in the same IO module, see below

NOTE: this option is only valid if your hardware is ALL second generation, in other words, this does not work with 61xx Fabric Interconnects or 2104 IOMs

I hope this helps, if it does, please rate it.

-Kenny

Check note about limitation in the port channel feature between the IOM and Fabrics Message was edited by: Keny Perez

Thanks Keny,

You answered the my questions perfectly and thanks for the images and the additoinal information. I have been looking all over for these answere.

It was my pleasure, I hope to see you more often in the community.

Could you please mark the question as answered, for other users in the future

Good luck falling in love with UCS  

-Kenny

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