Manual Chapter : Platform Overview

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Platform Overview

Platform overview

The

VELOS

CX Series

platform is a chassis and blade form factor, designed to meet the needs of large enterprise networking environments that requires the ability to process a large volume of application workloads. The hot-swappable blades provide you with the ability to add, remove, or change the platform's configuration to best fit your network. Many other components are available for you to add, remove, or change including the system controllers, power supply controller, fan tray, LCD bezel, and more. This configuration allows for an extremely robust and flexible system that can manage large amounts of application traffic, and remain operational even if one of its components goes offline.

The

VELOS

chassis supports either AC or DC power as a pre-installed factory option. The power supply units (PSUs) are hot swappable, but you can use only AC

/HVDC

PSUs in an AC-powered chassis and DC PSUs in a DC-powered chassis. You cannot mix AC

/HVDC

and DC PSU types in a chassis.

The chassis and blades ship in separate boxes. The system controllers ship inside the chassis. The blades are not designed to be shipped inside a chassis.

VELOS hardware components

VELOS platforms include three main types of hardware components:

Chassis, which houses the blades, system controllers, and other components.

System controllers, which provide a unified point for external management and connectivity to the platform and applications running in the chassis. The system controllers also provide a command-line interface (CLI), a webUI, and a REST API.

Blades, which handle traffic management capabilities, including disaggregation, packet classification, traffic-steering, and more.

VELOS software components

VELOS platforms include a new platform layer known as F5OS, which is a combination of the system controllers and chassis partitions.

For more information about installing and upgrading F5OS on your VELOS system, see

VELOS Systems: Software Installation and Upgrade

at Documentation - F5OS-C and VELOS. For more information about administering and configuring your VELOS system, see

VELOS Systems: Administration and Configuration

at Documentation - F5OS-C and VELOS.

Chassis overview

The chassis is the housing unit that contains all of the components necessary for the

VELOS

CX Series

platform to operate effectively.

VELOS

CX410 chassis are available in DC-powered Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS) compliant versions. For a system to be completely NEBS-compliant, you must use all NEBS-compliant blades in your chassis.

LCD module LEDs (Status and Alarm)

LCD touchscreen

Blades (or Blanks) 1-4

System controller 1

System controller 2

Blades (or Blanks) 4-8

The back of the AC-powered chassis includes four AC power receptacles.

Power supply controller 1

Power supply controller 2

Power supply receptacles (1-4)

Chassis ground terminals

Fan tray

The back of the DC-powered chassis includes four DC power block terminals.

Power supply controller 1

Power supply controller 2

DC power block terminals (1-4)

Chassis ground terminals

Fan tray

System controllers overview

The system controllers provide a high bandwidth interconnect between blades, as well as external management connectivity.

A system controller must be installed in each system controller slot to provide maximum system bandwidth and to provide redundancy.

You can use only SX410 Series system controllers in a

VELOS

CX410 Series

chassis.

A jack screw, a type of captive screw, is used to secure the system controller in to the chassis and remove it from the chassis.

Front view of the SX410 Series system controller

System controller indicator LEDs

Management port

Console port

USB port

Jack screw

Blades overview

A blade is the primary component that handles the traffic management within the

VELOS

platform. You can install up to

eight

blades in a

VELOS

CX410 Series chassis. The chassis includes blanks in the slots where blades are not installed. Blanks must be installed in all unused slots, as they help ensure proper airflow within the chassis and EMI compliance of the unit.

VELOS

BX110 Series blades are available in DC-powered Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS) compliant versions. For a system to be completely NEBS-compliant, you must use all NEBS-compliant blades in your chassis.

During initial setup of the chassis, an administrator can group blades into chassis partitions (this is different from TMOS admin partitions). Chassis partitions are a grouping of blades that are completely isolated from other blades/chassis partitions in the system. A blade can belong only to one chassis partition at a time.

For the

VELOS

CX410 Series

chassis, a chassis partition can contain up to eight

BX110 Series

blades.

The system comes preconfigured so that all blades are assigned to a default chassis partition.

Latch release

Ejector handle

Blade indicator LEDs

USB port (disabled by default)

QSFP28 ports (2)

Chassis terminal service overview

With

VELOS

chassis, blades do not have physical console ports. Each system controller has a physical console port. The system controllers in the chassis provide a terminal service that enables authorized users to access blade consoles over SSH using the chassis floating IP address.

At a high level, these user roles have terminal service access:

Admin: Users with this role can access any terminals in the chassis.
Resource admin: Users with this role can access any terminals in the chassis.
Terminal server admin: Users with this role have terminal server access to all consoles on the system regardless of partition restrictions.
Operator: Users with this role can access any terminals in the chassis.
Partition: Users with this role are not given access to any terminals in the chassis.

Since the chassis terminal service uses SSHD, clients can connect using SSH. The terminal service uses a range of network port numbers to differentiate between connections being requested to the various consoles in the chassis.

You can also access any blade console by selecting the desired blade using the Always-On Management (AOM) Command Menu after you connect a serial cable to either of the system controllers' console ports. For more information about AOM, see the section entitled

About Always-On Management

Console port numbers

The

VELOS

chassis terminal service uses a range of network port numbers to differentiate between connections being requested to either the blade or system controller consoles in a chassis.

Console	Port number
System controller 1	7100
System controller 2	7200
Blade <`1...x`>	700x

Connect to a blade or system controller using the chassis terminal service

If you are an authorized user, you can connect to a blade or system controller using the chassis terminal service.

Connect using SSH to the blade or system controller that you want to access.

ssh <blade-or-sys-controller-ip-address> -l admin -p <port-number>

This example opens an SSH session to an IPv4 address as an admin user to the blade in slot 1:

ssh 192.0.2.10 -l admin -p 7001

This example opens an SSH session to an IPv4 address as an admin user to the system controller in slot 2:

ssh 192.0.2.10 -l admin -p 7200

This example opens an SSH session to an IPv6 address as an admin user to the blade in slot 4:

ssh 2001:db8:ffff:100::1 -l admin -p 7004

If there is not already an active terminal session attached to the specified console, you are connected immediately. If there is already an active terminal session attached, you can choose to terminate the existing terminal session and replace it.

When you complete your terminal session to a blade or a system controller, you can terminate your session by typing the

Enter ~.

(tilde period) command sequence.

LCD menus overview

The LCD touchscreen includes a Health menu, which enables you to run LCD tests.

Health menu

You can use the Health menu to run LCD tests.

Option	Description
Run LCD Tests	Performs tests for the logo ball test and system LEDs.

Platform LEDs overview

The behavior of the various LEDs on the platform indicate the status of the system or component.

System controller Status LED

The Status LED indicates the operating state of the system controller.

State	Description
off/none	System controller is powered down.
green solid	System is running in normal mode.
yellow/amber solid	Host is not functional.
yellow/amber blinking	AOM is not functional.

System controller Alarm LED

The Alarm LED indicates the current alert status for a system controller.

There are five levels of messages.

State	Description
off/none	No active alarms.
yellow/amber solid	Warning. System may not be operating properly, but the condition is not severe or potentially damaging.
yellow/amber blinking	Error. System is not operating properly, but the condition is not severe or potentially damaging.
red solid	Critical. System is not operating properly, and the condition is potentially damaging.
red blinking	Emergency. System is not operating, and the condition is potentially damaging.

System controller Active LED

The Active LED indicates the activity state of the system controller.

State	Description
off/none	The system controller is unpowered, has failed, or is not active.
green solid	The system controller is active and primary.

Blade Status LED

The Status LED indicates the operating state of a blade.

State	Description
off/none	Blade is not powered.
green solid	Blade is fully functional.
yellow/amber solid	Host CPU is not functional.
yellow/amber blinking	AOM is not functional.
blue blinking	Blade locator function is enabled.

Blade Alarm LED

The Alarm LED indicates the current alert status for a blade.

There are five levels of messages.

State	Description
off/none	No active alarms.
yellow/amber solid	Warning. System may not be operating properly, but the condition is not severe or potentially damaging.
yellow/amber blinking	Error. System is not operating properly, but the condition is not severe or potentially damaging.
red solid	Critical. System is not operating properly, and the condition is potentially damaging.
red blinking	Emergency. System is not operating, and the condition is potentially damaging.

LCD module Status LED

The Status LED indicates the operating state of the chassis infrastructure.

State	Description
off/none	The chassis is completely unpowered, or the LCD module has failed.
green solid	LCD module is operational, and no chassis infrastructure faults are present.
yellow/amber solid	LCD module is in the process of booting its application code and is not yet operational or a chassis infrastructure fault is present. Examples of chassis infrastructure components include: system controller, PSU, fan tray, etc.
yellow/amber blinking	LCD module has lost communication to the platform for more than one minute.

LCD Module Alarm LED

The Alarm LED indicates the current alert status for the system. There are five levels of messages.

State	Description
off/none	No active alarms, the platform is completely unpowered, or the LCD module has failed.
yellow/amber solid	Warning. System may not be operating properly, but the condition is not severe or potentially damaging.
yellow/amber blinking	Error. System is not operating properly, but the condition is not severe or potentially damaging.
red solid	Critical. System is not operating properly, and the condition is potentially damaging.
red blinking	Emergency. System is not operating, and the condition is potentially damaging.

Logo ball LED

The F5 logo ball LED indicates whether the system is powered on and if the chassis locator function is enabled.

There are three status levels.

State	Description
on	System is powered on.
blinking	Chassis locator function is enabled.
Off	System is completely powered off.

Fan Controller Status LED

The Status LED indicates the operating state of the fan tray.

State	Description
off/none	The system is not powered, or a system fault prevents the fan controller status LED from being driven properly.
yellow/amber solid	Fan controller is in initial power up, or the fan controller is not reachable.
yellow/amber blinking	Fan controller is in bootloader mode.
green solid	Fan controller is initialized and functioning properly.

Power supply unit (PSU) controller LEDs

The LEDs on the power supply unit (PSU) controller indicate the status of the controller..

LED behavior	PSU controller status
off/none	System is not powered or a system fault prevents the PSU controller status LED from being driven properly.
yellow/amber solid	PSU controller is in initial power up or the PSU controller is not reachable.
yellow/amber blinking	PSU controller is in bootloader mode.
green solid	PSU controller is initialized and functioning properly.

AC
/HVDC
power supply unit LEDs

The LEDs located on the AC

/HVDC

power supply units (PSUs) indicate the operating state of the supplies.

Input LED	Output LED	Condition
green solid	green solid	Normal operation
off	off	Fault: Input UV, Input OV, VSB SC
off	yellow/amber solid	Not valid
green solid	yellow/amber solid	Warning: VSB OC Fault: Fan, OTP, OC, VOUT OV/UV
green solid	yellow/amber blinking	Warning: FAN, OTP, OC, VOUT OV/UV
green blinking	yellow/amber solid	Fault: Input OV
green blinking	yellow/amber blinking	Warning: Input OV, Input UV
green blinking	off	Not valid
green solid	green blinking	PS_ON_L is high
green solid	off	PS_KILL PSU not inserted

OV - Over Voltage; OTP - Over Temperature Protection; UV - Under Voltage; OC - Over Current; VSB - Standby Voltage

DC power supply LEDs

The LEDs located on the DC power supplies indicate the operating state of the power supplies

Input LED	Output/Fault LED	Condition (PUB-0342-01 and later)
green solid	green solid	Normal operation
off	off	Fault: Input UV
off	yellow/amber solid	Not valid
green solid	yellow/amber solid	Fault: Fan, OTP, OC, VOUT OV/UV, VSB OV/UV
green solid	yellow/amber blinking	Warning: FAN, OTP, OC, VOUT OV/UV, VSB OV/UV
green blinking	yellow/amber solid	Fault: Input OV
green blinking	yellow/amber blinking	Warning: Input OV/UV
green blinking	off	Not valid
green solid	green blinking	PS_ON_L is high
green solid	off	PS_KILL PSU not inserted

OV - Over Voltage; OTP - Over Temperature Protection; UV - Under Voltage; OC - Over Current; VSB - Standby Voltage

Platform interfaces overview

VELOS

Series platforms include multiple interfaces on the system controllers and the blades. You can enable or disable front panel management interfaces on the system controllers. You can also configure settings or properties on 100GbE interfaces on blades, such as enabling or disabling the interface, configuring port speed, Ethernet flow control, and more.

System controller front-panel management port overview

VELOS

system controllers include a 10GbE front-panel management port. You refer to the front-panel management port using the name <slot-number>/mgmt0, where <slot-number> is the designated slot number of the system controller within the chassis. The front-panel management ports are enabled by default.

Both system controller management ports are capable of functioning in either Redundant or Aggregated mode:

Redundant Mode: Only the Active system controller's management port forwards traffic. The management port on the standby will show an Admin state and operational state of UP, but will not forward management traffic; it remains a standby. Redundant Mode is the default.
Aggregated Mode: The management ports of both system controllers function as a single 802.3ad aggregated port. The system controller supports two modes of aggregation: STATIC and LACP.
You should use LACP aggregation whenever possible, as LACP aggregation management is superior to STATIC aggregation management.

Enable the management port from the CLI

You can enable a specified management port from the system controller CLI.

Connect using SSH to the system controller floating management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Enable the specified management port.

interfaces interface <system-controller-slot>/mgmt0 config enable

In this example, you enable the management port on system controller 2:

syscon-1-active(config)# interfaces interface 2/mgmt0 config enable

The system controller management port shows an operational state of

Disable the management port from the CLI

You can disable a specified management port from the system controller CLI.

Connect using SSH to the system controller floating management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Disable the specified management port.

interfaces interface <system-controller-slot>/mgmt0 config disable

In this example, you disable the management port on system controller 2:

syscon-1-active(config)# interfaces interface 2/mgmt0 config disable

The system controller management port shows an operational state of

DOWN

Create management port aggregation from the CLI

Each system controller has one 10GB management port. You can aggregate the management ports on both system controllers in your chassis so that they operate as a single 20Gbps 802.3ad aggregated port from the chassis partition CLI. The system controller supports two aggregation modes: STATIC and LACP (recommended).

You can define only one management port aggregation.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Create an aggregated interface.

interfaces interface config type ieee8023adLag name <aggregation-name>

In this example, you create an aggregation named "lag-test":

default-1(config)# interfaces interface config type ieee8023adLag lag-test

Add both of the management ports to the aggregation.

interfaces interface 1/<aggregation-name> ethernet config aggregate-id mgmt0

interfaces interface 2/<aggregation-name> ethernet config aggregate-id mgmt0

In this example, you add both management ports to an aggregation named "lag-test":

default-1(config)# interfaces interface 1/lag-test ethernet config aggregate-id mgmt0
default-1(config)# interfaces interface 2/lag-test ethernet config aggregate-id mgmt0

Configure a type or mode for the aggregation.

interfaces interface <aggregation-name> aggregation config lag-type [

LACP

STATIC

]

In this example, you configure an aggregation named "lag-test" to use LACP as the aggregation type:

default-1(config)# interfaces interface lag-test aggregation config lag-type LACP

Disable an aggregated interface from the CLI

You can disable an aggregated interface by removing the management ports from the aggregation from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Disable an aggregated interface by removing the management ports from a specified aggregation.

no interfaces interface 1/mgmt0 ethernet config aggregate-id

no interfaces interface 2/mgmt0 ethernet config aggregate-id

In this example, you delete an aggregation named "lag-test":

default-1(config)# no interfaces interface lag-test

Delete an aggregated interface from the CLI

You can delete an aggregated interface from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Delete an aggregated interface.

no interfaces interface <aggregation-name>

In this example, you delete an aggregation named "lag-test":

default-1(config)# no interfaces interface lag-test

Blade front-panel ports overview

On blades that include QSFP28 100GbE interface ports, you can use only F5-branded 100GbE QSFP28 or 40GbE QSFP+ transceiver modules in those ports. The QSFP28 100GbE ports default to 100GbE.

The cable that you use when operating at 100GbE with 100G transceiver modules is an industry-standard OM4 qualified multi-mode fiber optic cable with female MPO/MTP connectors at both ends. The cable that you use with 100GBASE-LR4 transceiver modules is an industry-standard SMF fiber optic cable with LC duplex connectors and a reach of up to 10km. You must provide your own cable and F5-branded QSFP28 transceiver modules for 100GbE operation.

The cable that you use when operating at 40GbE with 40G transceiver modules is an industry-standard OM3 qualified multi-mode fiber optic cable with female MPO/MTP connectors at both ends. You must provide your own cable for 40GbE operation.

You can also break out the 100GbE or 40GbE bundle and use them as individual 10GbE ports using a QSFP+ breakout cable. This cable has a female MPO/MTP connector at one end, which connects to the QSFP+ port, and four LC duplex connectors at the other end, which connect to SFP+ modules on an upstream switch.

If you are using a breakout cable for 10GbE connectivity, you should use the supported distance as detailed in the

Specifications for fiber QSFP+ modules

section and not the

Specifications for fiber SFP+ modules

section of the

F5 Platforms: Accessories

guide at

techdocs.f5.com/en-us/hw-platforms/f5-plat-accessories.html

Show the state of a specified interface from the CLI

You can show the state of a specified front-panel interface from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Show the state of a specified interface.

show interfaces interface <blade-number>/<interface-number> state

In this example, you show information about blade 1/interface 1:

default-1# show interfaces interface 1/1.0 state
state type               ethernetCsmacd
state mtu                9600
state enabled            true
state oper-status        UP
state forward-error-correction auto
state lacp_state         LACP_DEFAULTED

Show the state of all interfaces from the CLI

You can show the state of all interfaces from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Show the state of all interfaces.

show interfaces interface state

Possible completions include:

counters
disabled
enabled
ifindex
name
oper-status
type
forward-error-correction
mtu

In this example, you show the FEC state of all interfaces:

default-1(config)# show interfaces interface state forward-error-correction

Show statistics for all interfaces from the CLI

You can show statistics for all interfaces from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Show statistics for all interfaces.

show interfaces interface state counters

Possible completions include:

in-broadcast-pkts   
in-discards         
in-errors           
in-fcs-errors       
in-multicast-pkts   
in-octets           
in-unicast-pkts     
out-broadcast-pkts  
out-discards        
out-errors          
out-multicast-pkts  
out-octets          
out-unicast-pkts

In this example, you show statistics for all interfaces:

default-1(config)# show interfaces interface state counters

Show the current running configuration for all interfaces from the CLI

You can show the current running configuration for all interfaces from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Show the current running configuration for all interfaces.

show running-config interfaces interface

Show the current running configuration of VLAN interface members from the CLI

You can show the current running configuration of VLAN interface members from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Show the current running configuration of VLAN interface members.

show running-config interfaces interface

ethernet

switched-vlan

Reset counters for specified interfaces from the CLI

You can reset counters for specified interfaces from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Reset counters for specified interfaces.

reset counters interfaces [ <blade-number/interface-number> ]

In this example, you reset counters for blade 1/interface 1 and blade 1/interface 2:

default-1(config)# reset counters interfaces 1/1.0 1/2.0

Commit the configuration changes.

commit

Create a LAG interface from the CLI

You can create a LAG interface from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Create a LAG interface.

interfaces interface <lag-name> config

Possible completions include:

aggregation
config
hold-time

In this example, you create an IEEE 802ad LAG interface named "new-lag":

interfaces interface new-lag config type ieee802adLag

Commit the configuration changes.

commit

Create a static or LACP LAG interface from the CLI

You can create either a static or LACP LAG interface from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Create a LAG interface with a specified type.

interfaces interface <lag-name> config

Possible completions include:

LACP
static

In this example, you create a static LAG interface:

default-1(config)# aggregation config lag-type STATIC

Commit the configuration changes.

commit

Show the current running configuration for LAG interfaces from the CLI

You can show the current running configuration for LAG interfaces from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Show the current running configuration for LAG interfaces.

show running-config interface <lag-name> aggregation

Associate an interface with a specified LAG from the CLI

You can associate an interface with a specified LAG from the chassis partition CLI.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Associate an interface with a specified LAG.

interfaces interface <blade-number/interface-number> ethernet config aggregate-id <lag-name>

In this example, you associate blade 1/interface 1.0 with a LAG named "new-lag":

default-1(config)# interfaces interface 1/1.0 ethernet config aggregate-id new-lag

Commit the configuration changes.

commit

Network interface LED behavior overview

The appearance and behavior of the network interface LEDs on the platform indicate network traffic activity and interface speed.

System controller management port LED behavior

The system controller management port supports 10GbE/1GbE/100MbE connectivity. The appearance and behavior of the system controller management port LEDs indicate the link and activity status.

LED	State	Description
link	off/none	Not linked.
	green solid	Linked at 10GbE.
	yellow/amber solid	Linked at 1GbE or 100MbE.
activity	off/none	Not linked or link is idle.
activity	green blinking	Link is actively transmitting or receiving data.

QSFP28 port LED behavior

The appearance and behavior of the QSFP28 port LEDs indicate the link and activity status.

State	Module	Description
off (not lit)	QSFP+ or QSFP28	No link.
blue solid	QSFP28	Linked at 100GbE (with all four LEDs operating in unison).
blue blinking	QSFP28	Link is actively transmitting or receiving data at 100GbE (with all four LEDs operating in unison).
green solid	QSFP+	Linked at 40GbE when operating as a single 40GbE port (with all four LEDs operating in unison).
green blinking	QSFP+	Link is actively transmitting or receiving data at 40GbE (with all four LEDs operating in unison).
yellow/amber solid	QSFP+	Linked at 10GbE when operating as four 10 GbE ports.
yellow/amber blinking	QSFP+	Link is actively transmitting or receiving data at 10GbE.

Port groups overview

The front-panel QSFP28 100GbE ports on a VELOS BX Series blade support port group functionality. Port groups enable you to change which mode, or port speed, that port uses. QSFP28 ports operate at 100GbE by default, but depending on the optical transceiver module that you have installed in the port, you can configure the port group to use one of these modes:

100GbE mode: Creates one interface at 100G speed. This is the default mode for 100G ports.
40GbE mode: Creates one interface at 40G speed. This is the default mode for 40G ports.
4x25GbE breakout mode: Creates four interfaces at 25G speed.
4x10Gb breakout mode: Creates four interfaces at 10G speed.

VELOS

BX110 Series

blades support homogeneous port groups per blade, which means that if you want to change the speed of a port group, you must change the mode for both port groups on a blade.

Changing the mode for a port group reboots the blade, removes stale interfaces from your configuration, and removes any references to stale interfaces from your configuration. You will then need to reconfigure any previously-configured protocols to use the modified port group.

If you are going from QSFP28/QSFP+ ports to SFP ports where the SFP ports are individual 10G/25G optical transceiver modules, you must use a breakout cable to split the single interface into multiple interfaces, and then configure your blade to use one of the breakout modes.

Breakout mode cable requirements

If you are using QSFP28/QSFP+ optical transceivers in your VELOS BX Series blade and connecting to other QSFP28/QSFP+ ports, you don't need to use a breakout cable to use one of the breakout modes.

If you are connecting to SFP/SFP+ ports where the ports are individual 10G/25G optical transceiver modules, you must use a breakout cable to split the single interface into multiple interfaces, and then configure your blade to use one of the breakout modes.

Available interfaces for port groups

The system creates and breaks down interfaces based on how you have configured port groups.

Optical transceiver module	Port group mode	Interfaces
QSFP28	100G	x.0
QSFP28	4x25G	x.1 x.2 x.3 x.4
QSFP+	40G	x.0
QSFP+	4x10G	x.1 x.2 x.3 x.4

Configure port group mode from the CLI

You configure a port group for the interfaces on the blade at either 100GbE or 40GbE speeds from the chassis partition CLI. You can also break out the ports to either 4x25GbE or 4x10GbE.

VELOS

blades support homogeneous port groups per blade, which means that if you want to change the speed of a port group, you must change the mode for both port groups on a blade.

Connect using SSH to the chassis partition management IP address.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Configure port groups for a specific blade/interface pair.

portgroups portgroup <blade-number>/<interface-number> config mode [

MODE_100GB

MODE_4x25GB

MODE_40GB

MODE_4x10GB

]

In this example, you configure the port group mode on blade 1/interface 2 to use the 40GB mode:

default-1(config)# portgroups portgroup 1/2 config mode MODE_40GB

Commit the configuration changes.

commit

Verify the port groups configuration.

show portgroups portgroup

Always-On Management overview

The Always-On Management (AOM) subsystem on the system controller enables you to manage the system remotely from the serial console, even if a blade is powered down. The AOM Command Menu operates independently of the VELOS host operating system.

When you run the AOM Command Menu, the serial connection to the blade CPU is interrupted for the duration of time that the Command Menu is active.

You can use the command menu to reset the unit if the host has locked up or get access to a blade directly, so that you can configure it from the command-line interface (CLI).

When you access the AOM Command Menu, it displays the

Active console

, which blade's console is currently connected, and the

Physically connected console

, which is how you are physically connected to the system (for example, serial port/console or the management port of one of the system controllers).

In this example, you are connected to the console of the blade in slot 1 and are connected to the serial port of the system controller in slot 1.

Active console               : blade 1
Physically connected console : system controller 1 serial port
			
AOM Command Menu:
D --- Disconnect blade console
I --- Display blade information
P --- Power on/off blade
R --- Reset blade CPU
U --- Front panel USB port
Q --- Quit menu and return to console
			
Enter Command:

Access the AOM Command Menu from the serial console

You can access the AOM Command Menu after connecting to the system controller using the front panel serial console.

Connect to the system using the serial console.

Open the AOM Command Menu.

Esc (

The system displays the AOM Command Menu, the active console, and physically-connected console:

[root@controller-1 ~]# 
Active console               : system controller 1
Physically connected console : system controller 1 serial port
AOM Command Menu:
B --- Set baud rate
C --- Capture blade console
CC -- Capture system controller console
I --- Display chassis information
P --- Power on/off blade
PC -- Power on/off system controller
R --- Reset blade CPU
RC -- Reset system controller CPU
U --- Front panel USB port
Q --- Quit menu and return to console
Enter Command:

AOM Command Menu options

The AOM Command Menu provides the AOM options for the platform. You can access the AOM Command Menu using either a serial console or SSH via the chassis terminal service.

The availability of menu options varies depending on the platform type.

Letter	Option	Description
D	Disconnect blade console	Disconnects a previously-established serial console redirection to a blade. This returns the user console to the originating connection—either the system controller AOM if you are connected to the front panel serial port or the system controller's terminal service (if you connected through the system controller's management interface).
I	Display blade information	Displays information about the blade, including: AOM firmware version AOM bootloader version CPLD version Serial number Power status Status LED status Alarm LED status Power on self test status Runtime status
P	Power on/off blade	Powers the blade on or off. Depending on whether there is sufficient power in the chassis to power on the blade, the AOM may be unable to power up the blade. You can choose to forcibly power on the blade and will have to confirm that you want to power on the blade in this condition. F5 strongly recommends, however, that you install or apply power to additional power supply units (PSUs) in the chassis. Forcibly powering on a blade in this condition might cause a full chassis outage.
R	Reset blade CPU	Resets the blade's CPU. F5 does not recommend using this option under normal circumstances. It does not allow for graceful shutdown of the system.
U	Front panel USB port	Enables or disables the front panel USB port on a blade. The front panel USB port on blades are disabled by default.
Q	Quit menu and return to console	Exits the AOM Command Menu and returns to the blade's CPU console.

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Applies To:

Platform Overview

Platform overview

VELOS hardware components

VELOS software components

Chassis overview

System controllers overview

Blades overview

Chassis terminal service overview

Console port numbers

Connect to a blade or system controller using the chassis terminal service

LCD menus overview

Health menu

Platform LEDs overview

System controller Status LED

System controller Alarm LED

System controller Active LED

Blade Status LED

Blade Alarm LED

LCD module Status LED

LCD Module Alarm LED

Logo ball LED

Fan Controller Status LED

Power supply unit (PSU) controller LEDs

AC/HVDC power supply unit LEDs

DC power supply LEDs

Platform interfaces overview

System controller front-panel management port overview

Enable the management port from the CLI

Disable the management port from the CLI

Create management port aggregation from the CLI

Disable an aggregated interface from the CLI

Delete an aggregated interface from the CLI

Blade front-panel ports overview

Show the state of a specified interface from the CLI

Show the state of all interfaces from the CLI

Show statistics for all interfaces from the CLI

Show the current running configuration for all interfaces from the CLI

Show the current running configuration of VLAN interface members from the CLI

Reset counters for specified interfaces from the CLI

Create a LAG interface from the CLI

Create a static or LACP LAG interface from the CLI

Show the current running configuration for LAG interfaces from the CLI

Associate an interface with a specified LAG from the CLI

Network interface LED behavior overview

System controller management port LED behavior

QSFP28 port LED behavior

Port groups overview

Breakout mode cable requirements

Available interfaces for port groups

Configure port group mode from the CLI

Always-On Management overview

Access the AOM Command Menu from the serial console

AOM Command Menu options

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