Blade ICE BMD00178 manual New and Updated Features, Stacking

Models: BMD00178

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BLADEOS 6.3 Application Guide

New and Updated Features

BLADEOS 6.3 for 1/10Gb Uplink Ethernet Switch Module (GbESM) has been updated to include new and enhanced features in support of Virtualization and Fibre Channel over Ethernet.

The list of features below summarizes the updated features. For more detailed information about configuring GbESM features and capabilities, refer to the complete BLADEOS 6.3 documentation as listed on page 3.

Stacking

A stack is a group of up to eight 1/10Gb Uplink ESM switches with BLADEOS that work together as a unified system. A stack has the following properties, regardless of the number of switches included:

￿The network views the stack as a single entity.

￿The stack can be accessed and managed as a whole using standard switch IP interfaces.

￿Once the stacking links have been established (see below), the number of ports available in a stack equals the total number of remaining ports of all the switches that are part of the stack.

￿The number of available IP interfaces, VLANs, Trunks, Trunk Links, and other switch attributes are not aggregated among the switches in a stack. The totals for the stack as a whole are the same as for any single switch configured in stand-alone mode.

Stacking Requirements

Before BLADEOS switches can form a stack, they must meet the following requirements:

￿All switches must be the same model (1/10Gb Uplink ESM).

￿Each switch must be installed with BLADEOS, version 6.3 or later. The same release version is not required, as the Master switch will push a firmware image to each differing switch which is part of the stack.

￿The recommended stacking topology is a bidirectional ring. To achieve this, two external 10Gb Ethernet ports on each switch must be reserved for stacking.By default, the first two 10Gb Ethernet ports are used.

￿The cables used for connecting the switches in a stack carry low-level, inter-switch communications as well as cross-stack data traffic critical to shared switching functions. Always maintain the stability of stack links in order to avoid internal stack reconfiguration.

BMD00178, April 2010

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Blade ICE BMD00178 manual New and Updated Features, Stacking