Networking Novice Arista Switch Setup Help Needed

[Zevrant]

Greetings all,

first time posting here so please be lenient.

I recently picked up a decomissioned arista 7050SX with the intention of sticking it in front of my router or possibly replacing the switch i have running my ceph cluster.

The problem here is all of the documentation assumes you know how to communicate with the thing, so i was hoping someone could answer a few questions assuming the following setup is correct.

1. Switch has both PSUs plugged in
2. Switch is connected to my router via the management ethernet port on the front and there is no firewall between me an the switch. This is mainly to attempt to grab the IP off of the router via ARP or DHCP.
3. I've tried #2 by sticking it on a couple different old routers i have lying around and made sure to configure the router on a couple different subnets to make sure the switch wasn't mapped to something already in use.

Now my questions about the switch are as follows

1. How do i access the management interface? I'd really rather like to avoid having to go buy a serial adapter to interface with this
2. If the interface was somehow disabled, how can i tell other than not being able to access it?
3. If i do need to reinstall the firmware, can i run something other than the arista firmware? I assume no but it's always worth a shot.
4. Is it possible to put the thing in quiet mode or swap out fans with quiter ones

 

[kenned3]

1. Switch has both PSUs plugged in
2. Switch is connected to my router via the management ethernet port on the front and there is no firewall between me an the switch. This is mainly to attempt to grab the IP off of the router via ARP or DHCP.
3. I've tried #2 by sticking it on a couple different old routers i have lying around and made sure to configure the router on a couple different subnets to make sure the switch wasn't mapped to something already in use.

I'm no expert by any stretch, but that management port on the front is NOT an ethernet. You need a serial to RJ45 cable for it.

This should get you started (see step 2)

https://www.arista.com/assets/data/pdf/qsg/qsg-7000-series-1ru-gen1/Chapters/qsg-7000-series-1ru-gen1_Chapter_5_Configuring_the_Switch.pdf

 

[i386]

4) yes. arista switches support commands to set the fans to run at 30 to 100%, reducing noise drastically

 

[Zevrant]

Oh okay that wasn't clear to me in the documentation i read before. It listed one as a serial port and one as a management port. I assumed that since the port lit up like a normal Ethernet port does when i plugged it in (specifically the bottom port not the top one with the serial port icon silk-screened above it) it would allow me to control it from there.

With that said thanks for the input, any recommendations for rj45 to serial USB? Or would i need to go from rj45->serial and then serial -> USB?

 

[wifiholic]

I would recommend searching your favorite online retailer for a USB to RJ-45 console cable. Many listings will say that they're compatible with Cisco routers; since Arista uses the same pinout, those cables will work with your 7050 as well.

The main reason to buy a USB to DB9 cable and a DB9 to RJ-45 adapter would be if you need to connect to different types of network equipment that use different connectors or pinouts, but if you're not planning to venture too far beyond the world of Arista, Cisco, and/or Juniper, the simpler USB to [Cisco-compatible] RJ-45 cable will serve you well.

 

[klui]

The management port is an ethernet port.

https://www.arista.com/assets/data/docs/Manuals/QSG/QS_7000-Gen2_Color.pdf - top of page 17.

You get the cable for your needs. If you only manage these devices using a computer that only has USB ports, then get a USB-to-RJ45 serial cable. If you have any system with a real serial port you will use for management/configuration, get a Cisco serial cable along with and a USB-to-serial adapter.

Best practice when you first get a managed switch is to connect it to its serial console so you can obtain boot up messages and login so you can change settings, like the management port.