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

[i386]

Do you really need ethernet FW?

No, VPI firmware + manually configured port types should be fine.
VPI firmware + auto config for the port type can be problematic (on windows AND linux).

 

[fohdeesha]

If he hasn't already you'll soon be getting a DM from him about it.

The guy admits he's a full time YTber so maxing out his revenue stream would be in his best interest. I wonder what went wrong with the stacking ports. They don't require any licenses. Most likely the default is configured for stacking and that's why things didn't link up. Or he connected to the wrong ports: two are always broken out, two are not. At 12:44, he shows the 40G is connected to 1/2/1, which is the non-broken out port. Earlier he only mentions break out DAC cables.

I found it strange there were a ton of people who commented about this thread but haven't seen a URL, but didn't go through every comment. When mentioned on Reddit there are URLs everywhere.

Haven't heard from him, but I'm really not interested in getting involved (especially seeing the comments and the average....experience of most of his viewers). Indeed I can almost promise the 40G issue was his NICs, in fact I touched on that in the comment I left on the video (however the comment I left is being hidden by youtube, probably for being too long - as soon as I log out I can't see it anymore):

- just a small last note: it looks like the 40gbE NICs you picked up are mellanox ConnectX models (I'm guessing CX3) - these are great NICs, but in my experience almost always come with very outdated firmware, configured in "auto/VPI mode" (which means it will default to trying to run infiniband instead of ethernet half the time), and many times don't come with 40gbE capable firmware (see: mellanox CX3 crossflashing in the main ICX thread post). One or all three of these things are probably why your 40gb link was not coming up, as the ICX does not use licensing for 40gb ports

Regarding the lack of URLs in youtube comments, by default youtube doesn't allow comments with URLs, or depending on channel settings may send them to an approval queue where they have to be manually approved (I think it's up to the channel poster to set this, can't remember)

Someone told me they saw on his livestream today he stated he won't be posting a correction video because he has "moral concerns" with the licenses lmao. I'd be pretty satisfied with that so his audience continues believing they're shit and our ebay inventory doesn't get wrecked even further

 

[Mushishi]

cx-3 vpi have the same problem (I flashed all my nics now with the ethernet only firmware to avoid this )

Just checked my server and could see it was a Cx-3 i had also and can see i did flash it to Eth only before moving it to my linux server. I do remember i had some "fun" days when i just got the card and i tried to get it to work in Windows before i found that it had the dual firmware.

 

[LiamWJBlom]

Hey all,

I have 2 x Brocade 6430-24P switches I bought second-hand. Both seem to boot up correctly but I'm not able to use the console port, using multiple USB-to-Serial adapters, Cisco RJ45 cables. 9600, 8, none, 1, none. Have the serial plugged in while booting up and nothing is displayed?

Would be grateful for any help as I've been pulling out my hair for 3 days!

 

[fohdeesha]

Hey all,

I have 2 x Brocade 6430-29P switches I bought second-hand. Both seem to boot up correctly but I'm not able to use the console port, using multiple USB-to-Serial adapters, Cisco RJ45 cables. 9600, 8, none, 1, none. Have the serial plugged in while booting up and nothing is displayed?

Would be grateful for any help as I've been pulling out my hair for 3 days!

do you have any other serial devices you can plug into for a "sanity test" of your usb adapter/serial terminal/etc setup? You're sure you're plugged into the serial port and not management port right?

 

[klui]

The same thing happened to me on another channel. But mine was one sentence with a URL. Owner hearted my comment but when I logged off my comment was gone.

 

[LiamWJBlom]

do you have any other serial devices you can plug into for a "sanity test" of your usb adapter/serial terminal/etc setup? You're sure you're plugged into the serial port and not management port right?

Used the USB-to-serial adapters on my Dell monitor at home and that's working, uses female-to-female DB9 cable though. Have a cisco at the office and will give that try tomorrow. Yeah definitely in the serial (1010) port.

Also, not sure if they had Vlans or were part of a stack but when I plug 2 devices into the production ports no traffic is being forwarded.

Could they have disabled the serial port? Is that even possible?

 

[klui]

Someone told me they saw on his livestream today he stated he won't be posting a correction video because he has "moral concerns" with the licenses lmao. I'd be pretty satisfied with that so his audience continues believing they're shit and our ebay inventory doesn't get wrecked even further

Here it is with timestamp @5890 seconds. Without a list of timestamps/chapters that was a chore.

 

[fohdeesha]

Used the USB-to-serial adapters on my Dell monitor at home and that's working, uses female-to-female DB9 cable though. Have a cisco at the office and will give that try tomorrow. Yeah definitely in the serial (1010) port.

Also, not sure if they had Vlans or were part of a stack but when I plug 2 devices into the production ports no traffic is being forwarded.

Could they have disabled the serial port? Is that even possible?

not possible to disable the serial port, they could have changed/disabled it in the uboot bootloader but then fastiron would still have output when it finishes booting. It's possible to change the baudrate in uboot, I doubt that's the case but worth a try, try fresh booting it with your terminal set to the following (reboot it each time you change): 38400, 57600, 115200

 

[fohdeesha]

Here it is with timestamp @5890 seconds. Without a list of timestamps/chapters that was a chore.

lmao he had the guide/info *before* the video, and still published it? oof

 

[itronin]

lmao he had the guide/info *before* the video, and still published it? oof

I didn't think my opinion of his brocade video could get lower

Thanks @klui for enlightening me this morning.

 

[miharu]

Here it is with timestamp @5890 seconds. Without a list of timestamps/chapters that was a chore.

Lol, this guy knew about STH and deleted my comment, very funny.

 

[Deleted member 34436]

I am very sorry about asking this if this has already been answered, but what optics should I get to break the 40G QSFP+ into 10G? The links that you originally provided appear to have vanished and having never worked with Brocade I am not sure what works fine. Can you please help or update the links on the initial post. Thanks in Advance. Really like the guide

 

[klui]

The part numbers are still available on eBay. The links will be gone once the listing is complete so it won't make any sense to keep on updating them.

 

[Deleted member 34436]

Can I use any 40G nic with the 2 QSFP+ ports?

 

[i386]

If the nic works, yes.

 

[Deleted member 34436]

The part numbers are still available on eBay. The links will be gone once the listing is complete so it won't make any sense to keep on updating them.

I cannot seem to find the MTO fiber optic cable :/

 

[fohdeesha]

updated guide site to latest fastiron release 8095h (up from 8095g)

 

[bitbckt]

updated guide site to latest fastiron release 8095h (up from 8095g)

I don’t see anything in the release notes that’s particularly compelling (disable ssh… woo). Do you have any insight into the resolved issues?

 

[jcstill]

Hi,

I recently got a 7750-48F. It is boot looping printing this:
...
Not sure what is going on here, any help would be apreciated.

Thanks

Follow the guide linked in the first post to reflash the primary partition and the boot sector from inside the uBoot environment.

When I followed the guide, I would get the following error:

ICX77xx-Boot> update_uboot
Updating BOOT image over TFTP
Using FM1@DTSEC1 device
TFTP from server 192.168.1.2; our IP address is 192.168.2.2; sending through gateway 192.168.2.1
Filename 'ICX7xxx/spz10118.bin'.
Load address: 0x1000000
Loading: #
!!!Error: Not a BROCADE UBOOT file:Header Type 0x215
ICX77xx-Boot>

I found that the latest standalone bootloader for the 7750 is provided with the 8090mc firmware from the ruckus website here. I was able to successfully install that bootloader and the 8090mc firmware on the switch. The filenames are:
8090mc/ICX7750/Boot/swz10118.bin
8090mc/ICX7750/Images/SWR08090mc.bin

If that fails, you most likely have a hardware issue of some sort. I had a 7150 with wonky flash and I had to use the NAND clean and scrub commands to get it to properly load an image.

Unfortunately, this particular switch seems to be having issues and I cant get fastiron to start.

From the bootloader, I was able to install the 8095g firmware.
8095g/ICX7750/Images/SWR08095gufi.bin
This installs a new bootloader (10.1.19T205).

I am able to boot to the linux prompt but am not sure where to go from here.

Any ideas welcomed. I have attached the console output and can provide the coredump if needed.