There is IT in Helsinki

There is IT in Helsinki

BCEFP 2015 – Studying for the exam - part 3

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This third post  focuses on the remaining sources of information I had for studying for the BCEPF. At the time this post is published I have taken the exam.

When I make comments to CLI commands I put them after a #.

This is part of a series of posts on the topic of studying for Brocade's Certified Ethernet Fabric Professional.

The two previous posts: Objectives and reading materials, course and nutshell guide and NOS Admin Guide

VDX Troubleshooting Course

The material available also feels very short, same as the beta material available for the CEF300 , like only the parts of the slides that were updated for the BCEFP 2015 beta were included. When a slide says "(cont.)" but there was no previous slides on this topic, that's a hint :) Take the (currently free) course on Brocade's SABA - it's under Education on my.brocade.com. It has way more slides and info.

Some notes from the course:

Firmware Upgrade

  • Can upgrade all/selected RBridges in a logical chassis: firmware download logical-chassis
  • FTP/SCP/SFTP/USB(only local switch with USB)
  • By default it stages firmware only - so no reboot or activate. By adding auto-activate it reboots all RBRidges at the same time, not recommended.

SNMP

  • When BNA discovers a switch it automagically configures the switch to send traps (UDP 162) to the BNA server.

Fabric Formation:

  • Requires: Licenses. Same VCS ID, unique RBridge ID and same VCS mode (Fabric Cluster or Logical Chassis)
  • Check:
  • ISL ports are operational (show fabric islports)
  • Incompatible Firmware Levels

ISLs:

  • no fabric isl enable # this disables ISL formation. This makes it an edge port
  • CPU could be too busy to send ISL keepalives
  • If ISL is segmented and interface is up/up - it's probably a config issue.

vLAGs:

  • show running-config interface TenGigabitEthernet 1/0/2 # shows config
  • no shutdown
  • channel-group $NUMBER mode active type standard # active - LACP. Standard/Brocade proprietary.
  • show interface TenGigabitEthernet 1/0/2 # shows status
  • When counters are non-zero and looking for errors. Clear them and compare the delta.

Other:

  • show interface stats brief # shows discards, errors and CRC
  • VRRP:
  • show vrrp detail
  • pre-empting : if a virtual router comes online with higher priority than the current it will take over
  • VRRPE: Can enable short-path-forwarding. If one of the backup virtual routers (that don't own the Virtual IP) can actually forward traffic if that is advantageous.

FCoE:

  • show running-config zoning # show FCoE zoning
  • show fabric all #
  • RBRidge with this name: fcr_fd_160 # this comes online when fabrics are connected and Fibre Channel Routing is used.
  • RBRidge with this name: fcr_xd_4_100 # this comes online when devices across FC Fabrics can communicate. Don't see this? Check zoning.

iSCSI:

BCEFP practice questions / answers

http://community.brocade.com/t5/Certification/BCEFP-2013-Exam-150-180-Practice-Questions/ta-p/4099

These are decent practice questions and is nice because the answers give some explanation to the answers too.

Other

Intro to VCS Fabric Technology: http://www.brocade.com/downloads/documents/white_papers/intro-vcs-fabric-technology-wp.pdf

CFP- MSA CFP2 Hardweare Specs:

  • about the 40/100Gbps CFP2 SFP. MSA – multi-source agreement.
  • CFP2 module shall support LC, MTP12 and MTP24 optical connector types. MPO

NOS 4.1.1 release notes (p4,10,28,50):

  • 4.1.0 and later support VRRP-E across VCS fabrics.
  • 4.1.0 and later have vlag ignore split on by default
  • clear mac-address-table can clear MAC addresses associated with vLAGs and on other switches
  • Page 50 Has a table of scalability numbers for various features such as (6710 VCS, 6740 VCS, 8770 VCS):
  • max members of a LAG (8,16,8)
  • max switches in a fabric/logical cluster (24,32,32)
  • max ECMP paths (8,8,16)
  • max member ports in a vLAG (64)
  • max member of VMs (8k)
  • max ARP entries (8k,12,50k)

Network OS Command Reference v4.1.1 53-1003226-01

Pages 299, 1258-1260,1266,1297,1317,1318

  • firmware download
  • snmp-server user # access
  • snmp-server v3host # trap recipients
  • spanning-tree edgeport # quickly transitions to forwarding state: only for RSTP/MSTP. Portfast for STP.
  • switchport access # only allows untagged and priority tagged
  • switchport trunk allowed vlan ${rspan-vlan} # add allowed VLAN on trunks on L2 interfaces in trunk mode
  • switchport trunk default-vlan # put all non-matching traffic into this VLAN

Hardware reference manuals

VDX 6740 Hardware Reference Manual 53-1002829-02: Page 1

  • 6470: 24 1/10GbE SFP+ ports.
  • 6740T: 24 RJ-45
  • 6740-1G: 48 RJ-45 Base-T. 10Gb with license.

VDX 8770-4 / 8770-8 Hardware Reference Manual 53-1002563-03:

  • Chapter 1, Page 1:
  • Features CloudPlex.
  • Requires NOS 3.0.0 or greater.
  • 8770-8:
    • Up to 384 10GbE or 96 40GbE. Dual MM. 6 SFM. Max 8 PSU. 4 Fans. SX or LX 1Gbps SFP transceivers.
  • 8770-4:
  • Chapter 3, Page 32
  • For copper connections to < 1Gbps BaseT switches a crossover cable is needed (but it might not be if MDI/MDIX works..).
  • LC connectors for fiber ports

VDX 6730 Hardware Reference Manual 53-1002389-06: Pages 1,2,15

  • 6730-32: 32-ports. 6730-76: 76 ports. 8 or 16 x 8GB FC ports.

Network OS Software Licensing Guide v4.1 53-1003164-01

Pages 11-13

  • All have FCoE license (except 6710).
  • All have POD licenses (except 8770)
  • 6740 have 10/40GbE port upgrades
  • 8770 have L3 and Advanced Services

Notes:

  • for multi-hop FCoE it is needed on each node
  • L3: OSFP, VRRP, PIM-SM, Route-Maps, prefix list
  • Advanced: FCoE and L3
  • After installing a time-based license you cannot change system date or time. NTP is however not blocked. If you are using NTP, don't change system date/time when a time-based license is installed.