Need Delta 7024 owner willing to flash to Dell 8024

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fohdeesha

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Sorry to keep spamming the forum with this flashing business, but this should be the last one: It looks like I finally figured a method to flash Delta 7024's to Dell 8024's but I own neither, so I need to get on google hangouts or discord with a Delta owner to verify some flash addresses, then if they line up, attempt the method.
If the addresses do line up there is very little risk (about as much as the brocade flash), but if something does go wrong I will recover it via JTAG for you if you ship it to me and pay shipping costs. Shouldn't come to that though. It seems the dell firmware *does* have sfp+ restrictions (wants dell branded optics) so be aware of that as well
 

netfrog

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Nov 1, 2017
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I have a Delta Networks ET-DT7024,I volumteer to verify the flash addresses for u,I can't wait to turbo charge my delta 7024 to dell 8024,
I knew the risk for bricking the device already,But The international shipping is very expensive, if something goes wrong I can recover it via JTAG under your instruction.
 
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fohdeesha

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wow, nice find - now you have me looking at the other "for parts" 8024's on ebay.

@netfrog Keep in mind the Dell firmware only allows Dell SFP's, so your SFP's will stop working after the flash (unless you already have dell brand optics).

Also I won't be able to walk you through a JTAG recovery unless you already have a powerPC-capable JTAG unit, such as a BDI2000, which are around $100 on ebay not including international shipping. I doubt it'll come to that, but full disclosure
 

Terry Kennedy

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wow, nice find - now you have me looking at the other "for parts" 8024's on ebay.
It took a while for one to come around that I was willing to jump on. A lot of them are "ports fail to loop back during boot tests" or similar. I figured that since the status LED went blue, if there was a problem with the console it would likely be a bad connector, blown MAX232 chip, or similar. This one had rack ears and the SFP ports appeared to be in decent condition. I needed to tweak one of the SFP shells with needlenose pliers, but it wasn't bad. Nowhere near as bad as needing to replace both the SFP connector and shell, as I've done on a bunch of Cisco ASR1001s. [Someone had a pallet full of them and had a forklift accident, which explains all of the smashed ASR1001s on eBay.]
@netfrog Keep in mind the Dell firmware only allows Dell SFP's, so your SFP's will stop working after the flash (unless you already have dell brand optics).
I haven't yet found a (passive) DAC cable that the 8024 rejects. I've used (allegedly) Intel ones and some no-name "for Ubiquiti" that I got on Amazon for $7 each (I'm stacking this 8024F with an 8024 using 4 of these, .5m length). However, Dell doesn't check optics on ports configured to stacking mode, so you can use off-brand SFPs there as well. Changing ports from Ethernet to stacking mode requires a reboot, which is somewhat unpleasant.
 
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fohdeesha

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So it doesn't care about DAC cables, but actual optics need to be dell unless it's designated as a stacking port? strange
 

netfrog

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pepperoni in this forum had found a special SFP that compatible with dell
Just as a follow up on working SFP+ transceivers for the Delta Networks ET-DT7024 24 Port 10GB SFP+ 4 x10GBase-T Layer 3 Switch that has been changed into a Dell PowerConnect 8024F running firmware 5.11.1.1. I finally found a SFP+ transceiver that works, FTLX8571D3BCV-IT.
I looked up for powerPC-capable JTAG unit in my local market,but found it‘s also expensive,I used to think that it was a normal router JTAG wire.
 
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fohdeesha

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finally found someone willing to be the first to flash their Delta 7024 to a Dell 8024 via bootloader commands only (no JTAG) and it worked! He barely spoke english and I speak zero chinese so it was quite an interesting process. I will be writing up and formatting a guide to do so (like the LB6M guide). for all the 3 people out there with a Delta 7024

https://i.imgur.com/40nHEss.png

fun fact: in 2018 dell still does not have TFTP in their bootloaders. The longest part of the flashing process is waiting 20 minutes to send it a 30MB OS image over a serial port (and that's at 115200baud - if you leave baud set at 9600, expect several hours)
 
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