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Brocade ICX Series (cheap & powerful 10gbE/40gbE switching)

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klui

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Feb 3, 2019
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eduncan911 said:
OK, I'll jump in here for a moment... Can't tell if that's a sarcastic statement of, "that's nice."
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No, I was not sarcastic and was genuinely interested. I like to know the landscape of what's available out there.

If you buy new and know their limitations, you really can't go wrong with Mikrotik. I have enterprise switches from HP, Arista, Juniper, Mellanox, Celestica, Supermicro, Extreme, Nortel, 3com in addition to Brocade in my lab. It doesn't hurt to learn more about other vendors. The one vendor I don't want to get into is Cisco due to ever-increasing licensing restrictions.

Yes, I've read all 282 pages an find it quite informative.
 
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mtcoombes

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Jun 10, 2021
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Just jumped into Brocade by buying a 6450 for a good price on eBay. I’ve got a USB to RJ-45 console cable that works for Cisco, am I going to be able to use it for console access on the 6450? Or will I need to hack together some kind of adapter - looks like Cisco’s and Brocade’s RJ-45 pinout both use pin 3 for TX and 6 for RX? Thanks for any help!
 
fohdeesha

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
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mtcoombes said:
Just jumped into Brocade by buying a 6450 for a good price on eBay. I’ve got a USB to RJ-45 console cable that works for Cisco, am I going to be able to use it for console access on the 6450? Or will I need to hack together some kind of adapter - looks like Cisco’s and Brocade’s RJ-45 pinout both use pin 3 for TX and 6 for RX? Thanks for any help!
Click to expand...
it's the exact same RJ45 serial connection as all other network equip out there so your adapter will work fine
 
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shank

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Jul 19, 2020
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Wondering if I could pick the brains of all of you.

I previously had the qsfp port working with a breakout cable to a few hosts. I moved my setup and powered everything back on, but the ports won't come up. Tried rebooting both the hosts and switches.

The front 10gbs are fine using the same branded cables but single DACs to the same NICs.

Any ideas?
 
K

klui

Active Member
Feb 3, 2019
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shank said:
Wondering if I could pick the brains of all of you.

I previously had the qsfp port working with a breakout cable to a few hosts. I moved my setup and powered everything back on, but the ports won't come up. Tried rebooting both the hosts and switches.

The front 10gbs are fine using the same branded cables but single DACs to the same NICs.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Maybe you didn't save your running configuration and whatever settings on those ports wasn't applied.

You didn't insert the cables all the way. Try another port.

If you have a QSFP+ to QSFP+ cable, connect the cable to both broken out ports to see if it gets a link. Check using something like show interface description.
 
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shank

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Jul 19, 2020
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klui said:
Maybe you didn't save your running configuration and whatever settings on those ports wasn't applied.

You didn't insert the cables all the way. Try another port.

If you have a QSFP+ to QSFP+ cable, connect the cable to both broken out ports to see if it gets a link. Check using something like show interface description.
Click to expand...
Config was definitely saved as it had been reloaded lots of times before moving it.

They clipped in, but I'll check again and try the qsfp to qsfp of I have one.

Is there any specific config required on these ports?
 
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NateS

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Apr 19, 2021
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shank said:
Wondering if I could pick the brains of all of you.

I previously had the qsfp port working with a breakout cable to a few hosts. I moved my setup and powered everything back on, but the ports won't come up. Tried rebooting both the hosts and switches.

The front 10gbs are fine using the same branded cables but single DACs to the same NICs.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Following because I'm having the same issue, except that mine never worked in the first place. At first I assumed I got a bad cable, but now I've tried with 3 different QSFP->4xSFP+ DAC cables (1 Dell branded Amphenol, 2 10GTek), and none of them will link up.

I do see further up in the thread that someone managed to physically break their QSFP ports, and I suppose it's possible that happened to mine before I bought it on Ebay. But I can see the cables with 'show media' so I don't think that's too likely

The only slightly odd thing I notice is that show media lists the cables as 40gbe, rather than 10gbe breakouts (as I've seen some people's listings in this thread show). Is this normal, or could it possibly be that the cables misidentifying is causing the switch to not try to link up?

telnet@6610-livingroom>show media ethernet 1/2/7
Port 1/2/7:Type : 40GBASE-Passive Copper
Vendor Name: 10Gtek Serial Num: Q191100300070 Revision: 01
telnet@6610-livingroom>show media ethernet 1/2/2
Port 1/2/2:Type : 40GBASE-Passive Copper
Vendor Name: Amphenol Serial Num: CN04Y04W7AG40ME Revision: A
 
K

klui

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Feb 3, 2019
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NateS said:
The only slightly odd thing I notice is that show media lists the cables as 40gbe, rather than 10gbe breakouts (as I've seen some people's listings in this thread show). Is this normal, or could it possibly be that the cables misidentifying is causing the switch to not try to link up?
Click to expand...
That's normal.

Code: 
ICX6610-48P Router(config)#sh interfaces brief eth 1/2/1 to 1/3/8

Port       Link    State   Dupl Speed Trunk Tag Pvid Pri MAC             Name
1/2/1      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa77
1/2/2      Up      Forward Full 10G   None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa78
1/2/3      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa79
1/2/4      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa7a
1/2/5      Up      Forward Full 10G   None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa7b
1/2/6      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa7c
1/2/7      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa7d
1/2/8      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa7e
1/2/9      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa7f
1/2/10     Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa80
1/3/1      Up      Blocked Full 10G   None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa81
1/3/2      Up      Forward Full 10G   None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa82
1/3/3      Up      Blocked Full 10G   None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa83
1/3/4      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa84
1/3/5      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa85
1/3/6      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa86
1/3/7      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa87
1/3/8      Down    None    None None  None  No  1    0   748e.f8fa.fa88
ICX6610-48P Router(config)#sh media ethernet 1/2/2
Port   1/2/2:Type  : 40G QSFP Module
Vendor Name: Molex            Serial Num: ...             Revision:
ICX6610-48P Router(config)#sh media ethernet 1/2/3
Port   1/2/3:Type  : 40G QSFP Module
Vendor Name: Molex            Serial Num: ...             Revision:
ICX6610-48P Router(config)#sh media ethernet 1/3/1
Port   1/3/1: Type  : 10GE  Passive Twinax  2m (SFP +) (Not supported)
             Vendor: Molex              Version: ...
             Part# : ...                Serial#: ...
ICX6610-48P Router(config)#sh media ethernet 1/3/2
Port   1/3/2: Type  : 10GE  Passive Twinax  2m (SFP +) (Not supported)
             Vendor: Mellanox           Version: ...
             Part# : ...                Serial#: ...
ICX6610-48P Router(config)#
 
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BecauseScience

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Feb 3, 2016
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klui said:
Your problem is caused by Windows 10 associating a new network connection to the public profile. You can modify/create firewall rules for the tftp application so it applies across domain, private, and public profiles or reconfigure W10 to default all new network connections to a specific profile. It is a pain. The setting reverts to public when a switch reboots because the link drops and W10 thinks it's a new connection. Maybe it doesn't happen in all cases but I've experienced it across multiple switch vendors.

It may seem preferable to disable the firewall altogether but defense in depth is a good thing. I've done that before but only when I used Windows 2003 Server as a workstation.
Click to expand...
I screwed around with firewall rules trying to get it to work but I don't actually understand the public/private thing or much of anything about modern Window networking. I had hoped that disabling the Windows Defender Firewall sliders in some preference page would do the trick but you never know with Windows. It often thinks it knows better than you. The hoop jumping you have to go through to install unsigned drivers is bananas. I need to reboot for this? In 2021... Really???
 
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klui

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Feb 3, 2019
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Oarman

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Feb 28, 2021
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So I have a dumb question:

I picked up an ICX7150-C12P. I'm not doing anything fancy with it, I just needed POE + at least one SFP+ port + complete silence, so I followed Fodeesha's startup guide but then flashed the latest L2 firmware on it. The license from Fodeesha's instructions still seems to be there and fine.

I need one port to take a 1g SFP module (my firewall only has 1g SFP), so I picked up some cheap Ipolex optics from Amazon, but I can't seem to get them to work. My troubleshooting:
- If I take both Ipolex SFP optics and put them in my Mikrotik CSS326, it shows good link (at 1g)
- The Ipolex optics seem to work in my other SFP devices, I haven't tried anything else SFP+
- If I take one optic and put it in the ICX7150, with the other end of the fiber to the Ipolex in the Mikrotik, I get no link.
- If I replace both of them with random Finisar SFP+ optics (one in the ICX and one in Mikrotik), same fiber, I get good 10g link at both ends, so the ICX ports aren't disabled or anything.

Is there some trick / extra step to using an SFP optic in an ICX7150? From Googling this looks like it should just work? Is this just optics pickyness? If the later, anyone have a link to a cheap SFP optic known to work with these devices?

(Right now I've got a SFP-1gbe media converter plugged into an Ethernet port on the ICX leaving both SFP+ ports available, which is probably a better idea, but I'd still like to understand the problem better.)
 
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dennisp

New Member
Apr 1, 2021
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Oarman said:
So I have a dumb question:

I picked up an ICX7150-C12P. I'm not doing anything fancy with it, I just needed POE + at least one SFP+ port + complete silence, so I followed Fodeesha's startup guide but then flashed the latest L2 firmware on it. The license from Fodeesha's instructions still seems to be there and fine.

I need one port to take a 1g SFP module (my firewall only has 1g SFP), so I picked up some cheap Ipolex optics from Amazon, but I can't seem to get them to work. My troubleshooting:
- If I take both Ipolex SFP optics and put them in my Mikrotik CSS326, it shows good link (at 1g)
- The Ipolex optics seem to work in my other SFP devices, I haven't tried anything else SFP+
- If I take one optic and put it in the ICX7150, with the other end of the fiber to the Ipolex in the Mikrotik, I get no link.
- If I replace both of them with random Finisar SFP+ optics (one in the ICX and one in Mikrotik), same fiber, I get good 10g link at both ends, so the ICX ports aren't disabled or anything.

Is there some trick / extra step to using an SFP optic in an ICX7150? From Googling this looks like it should just work? Is this just optics pickyness? If the later, anyone have a link to a cheap SFP optic known to work with these devices?

(Right now I've got a SFP-1gbe media converter plugged into an Ethernet port on the ICX leaving both SFP+ ports available, which is probably a better idea, but I'd still like to understand the problem better.)
Click to expand...
Try setting the speed manually to 1gb
 
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morphector

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Jun 13, 2021
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Got a 6450 and wad tired of the stock fans so I bought the cheapest 3 pins 40mm fan on aliexpress....

Didnt have to mess around with the pins as the stock one arent standart....Just had to bend the pins a bit than insert the 3 pins connector the wrong way....

now its silent...
 
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shank

New Member
Jul 19, 2020
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Ok, tried the check media command and I can only see media attached to 1/2/1 and none of the other ports.
1623666251347.png
 
K

klui

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Feb 3, 2019
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It's possible your connectors are dirty/marginal. Hopefully not damaged. Physically inspect for damage and clean them.
 
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