Uni-Directional Link Discovery Protocol

BLADE OS 5.1 Release Notes

Uni-Directional Link Discovery Protocol

BLADEOS 5.1 now supports the Uni-Directional Link Discovery (UDLD) protocol, compliant with RFC 5171. UDLD operates at Layer 2 in conjunction with existing IEEE 802.3 Layer 1 fault detection mechanisms. It is used between peer devices to detect and disable unidirectional Ethernet links caused, for instance, by mis-wired cable strands, interface malfunctions, or media converter faults.

UDLD is configured on a per-port basis. It is disabled by default. The UDLD configuration menu is available using the following CLI command:

#/cfg/port <x>/udld

Operation/Administration/Maintenance Protocol

BLADEOS 5.1 now supports IEEE 802.3ah Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) protocol. OAM allows the switch to detect faults on physical port links. Using OAM, if the Local Information that a port sends does not match the Remote Information received, the link is determined to be in an anomalous condition and is automatically disabled.

OAM is configured on a per-port basis. It is disabled by default. The OAM configuration menu is available using the following CLI command:

#/cfg/port <x>/oam

sFlow Monitoring

BLADEOS 5.1 now supports sFlow technology for monitoring traffic in data networks. The switch software includes an embedded sFlow agent which can be configured on a per-port basis to sample network traffic and provide continuous statistical report information to a central sFlow analyzer.

sFlow features are disabled by default, but may be configured using the following menu:

#/cfg/sys/sflow

BMD00098, December 2009