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

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narapon

New Member
Mar 31, 2017
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I've got an ICX6450-48P that suddenly refuses to turn on (I found it was in an off state this morning when wifi went down), i've only had it installed 1 day prior and power is from a delta UPS (other equipment attached not affected). Now when I try to turn it on, I can hear the distinct click from the PSU area, assuming that it turned on. I've tried removing potential dust by using a datavac (holding down the fan blades of course) in the hopes that it was just dust causing issues (seemed like that was the case when the console port would not work)

Where do I go with diagnosing this? I saw 2 EPS power connectors but those will require the power shelf, and I assume they are not wired according to anything standard, power supplies for this are probably hard to come by

(update with IXC6450-48P pictures later)

update: it's powered on now after pressing the reset button, have no idea why

update again: it's turned off again, could it be heat from neighbouring devices?

I've also got a ICX7250-24P that cannot detect the POE module (firmware version shows 0.00), I have taken out the POE module to inspect for any potential physical damage and it looks like its in pristine condition which leads me to think its a firmware issue? I've tried flashing various firmware versions both UFI and pre-UFI images, neither of them pick up on the POE module, when I try to flash the POE fw via inline tftp on the pre-UFI version, i get a soft lock.


ICX7250-24P


ICX7250-24P POE module bottom


ICX7250-24P POE module top
 
Last edited:

kapone

Well-Known Member
May 23, 2015
1,095
642
113
31 mins and it's still working! Going to check back in an hour... @kapone any idea on what could've been up with the card?
Excellent. It's gotta be something janky with that card. CX2s generally play nice with almost all optics. Like I said, exact same cable, ~5 years up time...zero issues.

I've absolutely zero idea about why that card wouldn't play nice, except....it's janky? :)
 

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
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fohdeesha.com
Hi All,

I'm brand new to these devices, and enterprise-grade networking in general, but have eager to learn something new, so I figured I'd dive in. However, I think I might have just hosed myself here and need some help. Just picked up an ICX-6450-48 off eBay and was following the Fohdeesha guide, up to the point of running the "update_primary" command when I managed to kick the power cable plugged into the wall next to my desk and the unit lost power (1st dumb mistake). Then, I realized I had my ethernet cable plugged to a regular switch port instead of the management port (2nd dumb mistake, can't read instructions, apparently). Now, I can't seem to get the serial console to show up. After many reboots, and letting the serial connection remain open for a while, I sometimes see some information come across the screen, even once prompting me to press 'b' to access the bootloader, but it seems to freeze up after that. So, I'm not sure if something happed to the serial cable (which I doubt), or I effed up the bootloader and bricked the switch.

Any ideas or suggestions?
getting hosed while flashing the primary OS image won't do any harm to the bootloader, which is the important bit. unplug and replug your serial adapter (the usb side), then reboot your computer, then unplug the switch from the wall completely, then plug it in and smack b. you should get a prompt eventually. Your weird serial output sounds like what happens when a lot of these cheap usb to serial adapters get jostled or bugged out
 

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
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fohdeesha.com
I had an issue with my icx6650 and it was in a crash loop. I downloaded the latest firmware and followed the guide as usual, but after I flashed and set the license for ICX6650-10G-LIC-POD I noticed that it says the license capacity was only 24. This router has 56 ports on the front. Did I just lose more than half my capacity? Or is there another license somewhere I am missing?
The ICX6650 comes with 32 ports enabled by default, the biggest PoD license possible is a quantity of 24 which unlocks the remaining 24, for a total of 56. fastiron-08030-licensingguide.pdf in the same zip you downloaded
 

MikeSpears

New Member
Feb 8, 2016
14
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Excellent. It's gotta be something janky with that card. CX2s generally play nice with almost all optics. Like I said, exact same cable, ~5 years up time...zero issues.

I've absolutely zero idea about why that card wouldn't play nice, except....it's janky? :)
Who knows, who cares. I threw it in the trash lol
 

NateR

New Member
Feb 10, 2022
28
20
3
Hello all,

I've got an ICX6450-24p I've had in use for a year or so now. I've noticed that when I mess around with stuff in my rack, sometimes I'll lose the SFP ports (no status lights), which I use for uplink to the upstream switch, requiring a reboot of the switch. I believe I've finally figured out what is causing it - I disconnected a shielded network cable the other day, and happened to touch the metal shielding on the connector and shocked it with ESD (it's pretty dry here, and I typically touch the rack before anything else to discharge it, but either forgot to or just moving around built up a charge). The SFP ports went dark when this happened. Rebooted, and they came back up.

Any ideas on how to keep this from repeatedly happening?

Also, has anyone found a good alternative to OEM rack-mount ears? Mine came with a couple, but as I didn't have a rack at the time, I stupidly removed them and put them "where I will remember them..." well, after much searching, I have failed to find them.

Thanks
Anyone have any ideas about either of these?

Thank you
 

rigel.local

New Member
Feb 17, 2023
22
2
3
Please help to understand PSU fan airflow direction. I found 2 variants on ebay with PSU airflow green arrow down with letter E and orange arrow up with letter I. Does E stands for exhaust and I for intake? Does it affect noise level and what it the less loud version?

screenshot-2023-03-10-22-20-53@2x.jpg
 

nw60312

New Member
Jul 28, 2021
6
0
1
I have a ICX 7150 that I can no longer get into. Its powered up, running doing it's thing. I have a mac with Ventura, I have never been able to get the UBS console to work. The OOB network port used to allow me to get access. Web console is enabled but can't find a way to access it,

Switch IP address is 172.16.10.5 management interface is set to 1.

If connect to the management port with an IP address of 172.16.10.200 I can ping the switch at .5 but SSH or web console just times out.

Any suggestions of how to get back into the switch?
 

kpfleming

Active Member
Dec 28, 2021
383
205
43
Pelham NY USA
Any recommendations for known working adapters and cables?
I've got a spare Brocade cable (came out of a 7250-24P box) still in its original bag, would be happy to ship it to you for a reasonable price if you are interested. It should work with any USB-DE9 adapter with a male connector (I use a Tripp-Lite adapter because it's what I had on hand).

PM me if interested.
 
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Whattteva

New Member
Dec 15, 2022
16
1
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Hi, I just got the Brocade ICX 6450-48 and it's working great so far, but I do have one problem. It is annoyingly loud, which puzzled me because the OP said that the one fan is supposed to be nearly silent, but mine sounds like a jet engine. Is there any set of commands I can do to throttle this thing down? My use case is very light. I don't use PoE and only have like 8x 1G devices, so most of the ports are empty. I may add 2x 10G in the near future, but that's still a ways off in the future.
 

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,729
3,083
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fohdeesha.com
Hi, I just got the Brocade ICX 6450-48 and it's working great so far, but I do have one problem. It is annoyingly loud, which puzzled me because the OP said that the one fan is supposed to be nearly silent, but mine sounds like a jet engine. Is there any set of commands I can do to throttle this thing down? My use case is very light. I don't use PoE and only have like 8x 1G devices, so most of the ports are empty. I may add 2x 10G in the near future, but that's still a ways off in the future.
when booting up, do the fans ever spin down a lot from the full speed they boot at? seen that with a 6450 before, fan control mosfet or whatever burnt out and fans stuck on full speed
 

Whattteva

New Member
Dec 15, 2022
16
1
3
Nope. It screams right from the get-go all the way.

I looked at the temperatures and the fan state, it's already at 1 and way below the threshold temperature. It's just loud by default, it seems.
 

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,729
3,083
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fohdeesha.com
Nope. It screams right from the get-go all the way.

I looked at the temperatures and the fan state, it's already at 1 and way below the threshold temperature. It's just loud by default, it seems.
if it says it's sending the fan speed 1, but they're running at full speed (don't spin down after boot), it's definitely the mosfet/pwm fan circuit busted like a couple others I've seen here. if it's ebay you could try a return
 

Whattteva

New Member
Dec 15, 2022
16
1
3
if it says it's sending the fan speed 1, but they're running at full speed (don't spin down after boot), it's definitely the mosfet/pwm fan circuit busted like a couple others I've seen here. if it's ebay you could try a return
Oh man, that really sucks. I don't really want to return it cause I have to pay shipping and this thing is massive/heavy, so shipping is gonna be quite a bit.
 

klui

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2019
824
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if it says it's sending the fan speed 1, but they're running at full speed (don't spin down after boot), it's definitely the mosfet/pwm fan circuit busted like a couple others I've seen here. if it's ebay you could try a return
I presume by the last sentence these mosfets near the connectors on the PCB and inside the fan cages?
 

selta

New Member
Jan 23, 2023
6
0
1
Hey folks,
Having an oddity and wanted to see if anyone else has run into this. A quick breakdown:
server - Ubuntu 22.04 - mellanox connectx-3, 40Gbps, connected to 1/2/1 via QSFP cable
Normally, 1/2/1 I have in tagged vlans 2, 50
switch - icx 6610-48P

Issue came up when I moved a bunch of services from an old server to this one, and began noticing packet loss when trying to communicate with the server only on vlan 2 (vlan 50 is, by design in this scenario, supposed to be unreachable). Roughly 7-10% of straight pings are lost, even just pinging from the ICX switch to the server(eg: ping 192.168.1.10 count 150 results in packet loss).

Doing a whole lot of troubleshooting, and noticed something. When I remove port 1/2/1 from vlan 50, everything is fine. Zero packet loss. No other network change necessary, just removing that vlan from the port. If I re-add it (vlan 50=> tagged ethernet 1/2/1) , immediately the packet loss starts up again.

Double checked my netplan on the server - there is a default route for vlan 2, as expected, and everything else is fine. For completness in testing, I removed the vlan 50 config from netplan, applied, and even rebooted. Even then, if I tag the port with vlan 50, the packet loss comes back? Double checked the usual suspects like mismatch MTU, speed, duplex, etc., and as far as I'm able to see, all the config is correct.

Checked for any errors on the server (with ifconfig and ethtool) and on the switch (with sh int et 1/21), but the interfaces both look perfectly clean. Zero errors of any kind on both sides.

I don't have a spare 40G card handy (other than an XL710, and well, we all know how that'll go). I just ordered another QSFP cable to rule that out, though the one I'm using is only ~2 months old. My next steps will be to change port on the connect-x and on the ICX to see if that helps, and if it does I'll of course let you all know.

For giggles, I created a new VLAN on the switch, vlan 101. I tagged 1/2/1 with that VLAN, and the packet loss is still present, just less, which makes even less sense.

I do have a spare 10G card I can drop in to test. An older server (also 22.04), on the same switch, but 10G only, tagged with the same VLANs, is not having the issue. So I'm really thinking something with the connectx or cable, but that doesn't explain why it goes away once I remove the vlan on the switchport, to me.
 

Cirdane

New Member
Mar 18, 2023
3
1
3
Hey all
Newbie here with a recently configured ICX6450 so apologies in advance if this has been asked many times.

I have everything up and running now, but I've been trying to set up VLAN's for different purposes and since the rest of my equipment except the switch is TP-link omada I've decide to use Omada Software controller (running in a docker) to config everything.

I've been following the guide to set everything up so the config is basically this:
vlan 1
router-interface ve 1
exit
interface ve 1
ip address 192.168.0.10/24
exit
write mem
temp 1.jpg

And this is my setup in Omada:

temp 2.jpg

I have also set up different WiFi's which correspond to these LAN's using VLAN's 1, 10, and 100.

However anything that tries to connect to the WiFi's that are set up to use VLAN 10 or VLAN 100 gets stuck on just "connecting" so obviously there's some config missing in the switch but I don't really know what to do here?