Manual Chapter : Platform Overview

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Platform Overview

About the platform

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 support.f5.com/csp/knowledge-center/software/F5OS. For more information about administering and configuring your VELOS system, see

VELOS Systems: Administration and Configuration

at support.f5.com/csp/knowledge-center/software/F5OS.

About the chassis

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

VELOS

CX Series

platform to operate effectively.

The

VELOS

CX410 chassis and 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.

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

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

About the system controller

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

About the blades

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

VELOS

platform. 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.

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.

Latch release

Ejector handle

Blade indicator LEDs

USB port (disabled by default)

QSFP28 ports (2)

About the chassis terminal service

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 address.

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

Admin: Users with this role can access any terminals in the chassis.
Terminal server admin
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

in the platform guide for your VELOS chassis

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 as an admin user to the blade in slot 1:

ssh 192.0.2.10 -1 admin -p 7001

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

ssh 192.0.2.10 -1 admin -p 7200

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.

About LCD menus

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

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.

About platform LEDs

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

About platform interfaces

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.

About the system controller front panel management port

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.

System controller management port settings

These command sequences define configurable settings for a system controller front panel management port. To access the command line interface (CLI), connect using SSH to the system controller floating management IP address. When you log in to the system, you are in user mode, so you must first change to config mode by typing

config

. You can type a question mark (

) or press the Tab key to see possible command completions in the CLI.

Be sure to commit all changes.

Task	Command	Result
Enable management port	interfaces interface <`system_controller_slot`>/mgmt0 config enable	The system controller management port shows an operational state of UP.
Disable management port	interfaces interface <`system_controller_slot`>/mgmt0 config disable	The system controller management port shows an operational state of DOWN.
Create management port aggregation	interfaces interface <`aggregation_name`> config type ieee8023adLag name <`aggregation_name`>	Both system controller management ports operate in aggregated mode, acting as a single 20Gbps 802.3ad aggregated port. The system controller supports two aggregation modes: STATIC and LACP. Use of LACP is recommended. For more information, see the admin guide. You can define only one management port aggregation.
Remove an aggregation interface	no interfaces interface <`aggregation_name`>	This removes the specified aggregation interface.
Add management ports to a specified aggregation	interfaces interface 1/<`aggregation_name`> ethernet config aggregate-id mgmt0 interfaces interface 2/<`aggregation_name`> ethernet config aggregate-id mgmt0	These commands add the system controller management ports to the specified aggregation. You must add both management ports to the management port aggregation interface. You cannot add ports other than the system controller management ports to the management port aggregation.
Disable management port aggregation in STATIC mode	no interfaces interface 1/mgmt0 ethernet config aggregate-id no interfaces interface 2/mgmt0 ethernet config aggregate-id	These commands remove the system controller management ports from an aggregation.
Enable management port aggregation in STATIC mode	interfaces interface <`aggregation_name`> aggregation config lag-type STATIC	This configures a specified aggregation with STATIC as the aggregation type.
Enable management port aggregation in LACP mode	interfaces interface <`aggregation_name`> aggregation config lag-type LACP	This configures a specified aggregation with STATIC as the aggregation type.

About 100GbE interfaces

On platforms that include 100GbE interface ports, you can use only F5-branded 100GbE QSFP28 transceiver modules in those ports.

When a 100GbE interface operates at either 40GbE and 100GbE speeds, it is considered to be

bundled

The 100GbE ports (1.0-4.0) default to 100GbE. The cable that you use when operating at 100GbE with 100GBASE-SR4 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.

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

100GbE interface port settings

These command sequences define configurable settings for the 100GbE interface ports on VELOS BX Series blades. To access the command line interface (CLI), connect using SSH to the chassis partition IP address. When you log in to the system, you are in user mode. Before you can complete configuration tasks, you must first change to config mode by typing

config

. You can type a question mark (

) or press the Tab key to see possible command completions in the CLI.

Be sure to commit all changes.

Task	Command	Example
Show the status of a specified interface	show interfaces interface <`blade_number`/`interface_number`> Possible completions: aggregation ethernet state	show interfaces interface 1/1.1
Show the state of all interfaces	show interfaces interface state Possible completions: counters disabled enabled ifindex name oper-status type forward-error-correction mtu	show interfaces interface state forward-error-correction
Show the state of a specified interface	show interfaces interface <`blade_number`/`interface_number`> state	show interfaces interface 1/1.1 state
Show the interface statistics for all interfaces	show interfaces interface state counters Possible completions: 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	show interfaces interface state counters
Show the current running configuration for all interfaces	show running-config interfaces interface	show running-config interfaces interface
Show the current running configuration of VLAN interface members	show running-config interfaces interface ethernet switched-vlan	show interfaces interface ethernet switched-vlan
Reset counters for specified interfaces	reset counters interfaces [ <`blade_number`/`interface_number`> ]	reset counters interfaces 1/1.0 1/2.0
Reset counters for all interfaces	reset counters [ all \| interfaces ]	reset counters all
Create a LAG interface	interfaces interface <`lag_name`> config Possible completions: aggregation config hold-time	interfaces interface new_lag config type ieee802adLag
Create a LAG interface with a specified type	aggregation config lag-type Possible completions: LACP static	aggregation config lag-type STATIC
Show the current running configuration of LAG interfaces	show running-config interface <`lag_name`> aggregation	show running-config interface new_lag aggregation
Associate a specified interface with a specified LAG	interfaces interface <`blade_number`/`interface_number`> ethernet config aggregate-id <`lag_name`>	interfaces interface 1/1.0 ethernet config aggregate-id new_lag

About network interface LED behavior

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

QSFP28 port LED behavior

The appearance and behavior of the QSFP28 port LEDs indicate network traffic activity, interface speed, and interface duplexity.

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.

About Always-On Management

The Always-On Management (AOM) subsystem on the system controller enables you to manage the system remotely using 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:

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

About the platform

VELOS hardware components

VELOS software components

About the chassis

About the system controller

About the blades

About the chassis terminal service

Console port numbers

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

About LCD menus

Health menu

About platform LEDs

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

About platform interfaces

About the system controller front panel management port

System controller management port settings

About 100GbE interfaces

100GbE interface port settings

About network interface LED behavior

QSFP28 port LED behavior

About Always-On Management

Access the AOM Command Menu from the serial console

AOM Command Menu options

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AC
/HVDC
power supply unit LEDs