Drag to reposition cover

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

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

egoistdream

New Member
Mar 26, 2016
2
0
1
36
Hi guys, I have one question regarding to Brocade ICX6650, I see it supports OpenFlow in hardware for SDN, I did not use until now but I know that if is properly configured you can have a virtual bgp router that will keep just the golbal routing table without the traffic to pass trough the router, my question is if any of you have used OpenFlow in any way ?
 

silika

New Member
May 6, 2022
4
0
1
Welp, I sent back the 6450 and my 6610 is lost in the seller‘s shipping department somewhere, so I guess I’m still shopping :p Looking at 7150s, I see that chassis fanless is only supported on the -24p and the -48p, so I guess that means that it is explicitly not supported on the -48pf, right? Or does the -48pf count as a subtype of -48p for these purposes? Has anyone tried fanless on a -48pf?
 

Lone Wolf

Member
Apr 3, 2022
47
9
8
I'm the only one who has logged into the switch, and the only time I ran the serial command was when I first set up the switch while following your guide. I've had the switch off several times since then - I replaced the fans a week or so ago so it was definitely unplugged at that point! No issues until yesterday. I guess I'll just keep an eye on it - at least if it messes up again I know how to fix it now :D
Apparently I don't know how to fix it :( My UPS died today (god I hate APC) which means my Brocade shut down. On booting it up, it lost its licenses again. I get this:

1 Node Lock ICX6450-PREM-LIC-SW H4CKTH3PLN8 Normal Invalid Unlimited 1
2 Node Lock ICX6450-10G-LIC-POD H4CKTH3PLN8 Normal Invalid Unlimited 2

I've run through several times trying to add the licenses again but always end up at the same spot. Here are the last set of commands I've run:

Clear the license:
enable
license delete unit 1 all
write mem
reload

Add the serial number:

enable
hw pid-prom serial 2ax5o2jk68e
hw pid-prom clear-sw-lid
write mem
reload

Add the license:
enable
copy tftp license 192.168.2.161 ICX64xx/1-6450-prem.xml unit 1
copy tftp license 192.168.2.161 ICX64xx/2-6450-ports.xml unit 1

show license

write mem
reload

I can see in tftp that the file get accessed, the switch says it writes it, but the licenses always say invalid. I've tried using write mem and various stages, or only on the last stage. No difference.

Any idea how I can get the licenses to stick?
 

danb35

Member
Nov 25, 2017
35
4
8
45
Thanks for the informative OP and docs, and to a lesser degree for this thread (to a lesser degree because I haven't gotten all the way through it yet). A 6450-48P just arrived from eBay this afternoon and appears to be in good condition. And except for one case where I forgot to move a network cable from the management port to one of the general ports, the guide worked flawlessly. The unit is quieter than my Dell 5524P and has double the ports, which makes for a nice upgrade. But you're right about the web interface; it makes the 5524 look polished. Now about that 6610...
 

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,874
3,374
113
34
fohdeesha.com
Apparently I don't know how to fix it :( My UPS died today (god I hate APC) which means my Brocade shut down. On booting it up, it lost its licenses again. I get this:

1 Node Lock ICX6450-PREM-LIC-SW H4CKTH3PLN8 Normal Invalid Unlimited 1
2 Node Lock ICX6450-10G-LIC-POD H4CKTH3PLN8 Normal Invalid Unlimited 2

I've run through several times trying to add the licenses again but always end up at the same spot. Here are the last set of commands I've run:

Clear the license:
enable
license delete unit 1 all
write mem
reload

Add the serial number:
enable
hw pid-prom serial 2ax5o2jk68e
hw pid-prom clear-sw-lid
write mem
reload

Add the license:
enable
copy tftp license 192.168.2.161 ICX64xx/1-6450-prem.xml unit 1
copy tftp license 192.168.2.161 ICX64xx/2-6450-ports.xml unit 1

show license

write mem
reload

I can see in tftp that the file get accessed, the switch says it writes it, but the licenses always say invalid. I've tried using write mem and various stages, or only on the last stage. No difference.

Any idea how I can get the licenses to stick?
can you do a teamviewer session so I can poke some things? never seen this happen to a single other person so there's definitely something strange going on
 

Lone Wolf

Member
Apr 3, 2022
47
9
8
can you do a teamviewer session so I can poke some things? never seen this happen to a single other person so there's definitely something strange going on
That was my thinking. Let me get something set up so I can get you a teamviewer session. How best to get you the connection info?

I appreciate the offer!
 

danb35

Member
Nov 25, 2017
35
4
8
45
Is it possible to set the switch up with more than one SSH public key? I don't share private keys across my machines, but it'd be nice to be able to SSH into the switch from more than one computer.
 

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,874
3,374
113
34
fohdeesha.com
Let us know how it goes!
just finished, copy-pasting what I DMd him:


so it looks like it was some corrupted chassis metadata cache under linux, I cleaned out every single file in the temporary filesystem mount, and it's now reading correctly and came up with the right serial and LID:
Code:
ICX6450-48P-Router>show pid-prom
-cut-for-privacy-
I had no idea fastiron seems to keep some kind of record of chassis eeprom data on the filesystem, but it definitely seems to. not sure if it was /fast_iron/cvpersistent, /fast_iron/meta_data.bin, or /fast_iron/cvpersistent, but it was definitely one of these that had some bad values in them. clearing them and having fastiron regen them on next boot seems to have totally fixed everything. I suspect maybe one of these was in the middle of getting written to when your first power outage occurred

doing this wiped everything off the switch, so you'll need to reconfigure everything then re-import the licenses - but they should work perfectly now. Just to be sure, I would first pull power from the switch for a minute or so, then repower it. once it's back up, run "show pid-prom" and check that the values are still what I pasted above, and haven't gone blank again - to ensure it's not some cold-boot phenomenon
 

Lone Wolf

Member
Apr 3, 2022
47
9
8
Much appreciated, Fohdeesha, for helping a guy out on a Sunday evening! I'll throw a little at your liquor fund again, as you saved me from having a bum switch! Many thanks.
 
  • Love
Reactions: fohdeesha

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,874
3,374
113
34
fohdeesha.com
Looks like it's only applicable for newer gen switches per Accessing Linux - Fohdeesha Docs 6450, 6650, 7xxx only.

Hopefully won't affect older gens like 6610, FCX, GS...
since those older gens aren't running linux (which is why accessing linux does not work on them :p) they're definitely not caching metadata under linux (and if the monolithic fastiron app that boots is, it's entirely wiped out by a primary slot OS reflash)
 

casperghst42

Member
Sep 14, 2015
118
23
18
56
Is it possible to set the switch up with more than one SSH public key? I don't share private keys across my machines, but it'd be nice to be able to SSH into the switch from more than one computer.
Normally what you do, is that you create an ssh key for only this, which you then distribute to the people and/or computers who/which need it.

Or if this is an enterprice environment, then maybe an PAM solution could be used.
 
  • Like
Reactions: danb35

tangent

New Member
Feb 7, 2020
7
1
3
Hello!

I've got a icx7250 running my network core

After a power outage, my switch which had happily been running for a year straight seems to have forgotten it's license!

What's worse, when I type "license" and hit tab, the only option is "delete" and "license install" is giving invalid syntax errors!

Google has not helped me. I can't easily post command output since I can only easily console into the switch the moment and I am posting from my phone...

Edit: ok so this is fun. Looks like the primary flash got corrupted, and it is falling back to secondary flash which does not support honor-based licensing. I should be good once I re-flash it with the right version.
 
Last edited:

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,874
3,374
113
34
fohdeesha.com
Hello!

I've got a icx7250 running my network core

After a power outage, my switch which had happily been running for a year straight seems to have forgotten it's license!

What's worse, when I type "license" and hit tab, the only option is "delete" and "license install" is giving invalid syntax errors!

Google has not helped me. I can't easily post command output since I can only easily console into the switch the moment and I am posting from my phone...
Sounds like it reverted to booting from the secondary firmware slot, which has an old version from before licenses were made free. You can verify by running show version and see what it's running. If it's old it might have gotten rid of some of your config too. Just follow the guide to flash the new firmware back to primary again, and ensure it's set to boot from primary (if it's booting from secondary, you may have to knock some sense into it by running "boot system flash primary" at the configure terminal level, then write mem to save it)
 
  • Like
Reactions: tangent

tangent

New Member
Feb 7, 2020
7
1
3
Yup, and the best part is that most of my key devices (router, fileserver with config backup, etc) were connected to the 10g ports :rolleyes:

It was due for an upgrade anyway.

Thanks for all your support!
 
  • Like
Reactions: fohdeesha