Quanta LB4M 48-Port Gigabit Switch Discussion

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PGlover

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Nov 8, 2014
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I replaced all my fans (including the psu ones which did require pin re-wiring) with 40mm Noctua fans which were a little thin @ 10mm depth/thickness but they still work great, they are super silent. The temps are higher though, around 50-55 degrees compared to 37-45 with the original fans at the usual jet engine speed, but it hasn't affected performance in any way as far as I can tell. My switch sits on its ass end currently and I found that if you are able to leave the switch flat (as intended and designed) you will have even lower temps around 43-47 degrees lol using all Noctua fans. I have also tried the Noctua in-line fan speed limiters on the original fans and they did work as intended but the Noctua fans do a much better job of staying quiet and air flow/pressure was the same if not better as temps are slighty lower than the fan limiters I used. One more thing to note is that the psu reports that it has failed but it's just because the fan speed is so much slower, and at times it reports it's functional, this is normal, so no worries. Hope that helps ;)
Can you provide a link to the 40mm Noctua fans? The model number would be great.
 

PGlover

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Can someone explain the harm in disabling spanning-tree on this switch. I noticed that disabling spanning-tree allows all my PCs and servers to connect to the network quicker. I normally have a 5 second delay when turning back on my computer and now it is no delay at all.. Is there a better way to configure the switch so that my computers connect to the network quicker? Please advise.
 

djflow195

Member
Jan 1, 2016
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Can you provide a link to the 40mm Noctua fans? The model number would be great.
NF-A4x10 FLX, but I would look at the Delta fan AFB0412LB-F00.

NF-A4x10 FLX - 4500RPM, 17.9 dBA, 4.83 CFM, 1.78 mmH2O, 0.6W, 40 x 40 x 10
AFB0412LB-F00 - 5000RPM, 18.5 dBA, 6.50 CFM, 3.67 mmH2O, 0.6W, 40 x 40 x 15

Can someone explain the harm in disabling spanning-tree on this switch.
If you have a switching loop and STP is disabled, it will take down the network with broadcast storms. STP eliminates the switching loop by disabling multiple connections to switches. STP allows you to have multiple links between switches for redundancy without the risk of creating switching loops. Just make sure you do not have a switching loop and you can run with STP disabled.
 

PGlover

Active Member
Nov 8, 2014
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NF-A4x10 FLX, but I would look at the Delta fan AFB0412LB-F00.

NF-A4x10 FLX - 4500RPM, 17.9 dBA, 4.83 CFM, 1.78 mmH2O, 0.6W, 40 x 40 x 10
AFB0412LB-F00 - 5000RPM, 18.5 dBA, 6.50 CFM, 3.67 mmH2O, 0.6W, 40 x 40 x 15



If you have a switching loop and STP is disabled, it will take down the network with broadcast storms. STP eliminates the switching loop by disabling multiple connections to switches. STP allows you to have multiple links between switches for redundancy without the risk of creating switching loops. Just make sure you do not have a switching loop and you can run with STP disabled.
I am using the Delta AFB0412LB-F00 fans in the power supply and they have been working fine for me. You just need to re-pin them to match the existing pin layout on the original fans.
 

PGlover

Active Member
Nov 8, 2014
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NF-A4x10 FLX, but I would look at the Delta fan AFB0412LB-F00.

NF-A4x10 FLX - 4500RPM, 17.9 dBA, 4.83 CFM, 1.78 mmH2O, 0.6W, 40 x 40 x 10
AFB0412LB-F00 - 5000RPM, 18.5 dBA, 6.50 CFM, 3.67 mmH2O, 0.6W, 40 x 40 x 15



If you have a switching loop and STP is disabled, it will take down the network with broadcast storms. STP eliminates the switching loop by disabling multiple connections to switches. STP allows you to have multiple links between switches for redundancy without the risk of creating switching loops. Just make sure you do not have a switching loop and you can run with STP disabled.
Maybe the compromise is to enable STP and then configure all the ports as Edge Ports (PortFast).
 

djflow195

Member
Jan 1, 2016
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Maybe the compromise is to enable STP and then configure all the ports as Edge Ports (PortFast).
The standard is to leave STP enabled (use RSTP if available), and set access ports to portfast. Leave any switch to switch ports and trunk ports set portfast disabled.
 

PGlover

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Nov 8, 2014
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The standard is to leave STP enabled (use RSTP if available), and set access ports to portfast. Leave any switch to switch ports and trunk ports set portfast disabled.
Can you provide the CLI commands for the Quanta LB4M switch...
 

PGlover

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Nov 8, 2014
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The standard is to leave STP enabled (use RSTP if available), and set access ports to portfast. Leave any switch to switch ports and trunk ports set portfast disabled.
I noticed that there are 2 edgeport commands (see below). Should I enable this on each of the access ports? Just no sure what auto-edge does..

spanning-tree edgeport
spanning-tree auto-edge

Also there is a spanning-tree mode command which you can set to "rstp".
spanning-tree mode rstp
 
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djflow195

Member
Jan 1, 2016
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I noticed that there are 2 edgeport commands (see below). Should I enable this on each of the access ports? Just no sure what auto-edge does..

spanning-tree edgeport
spanning-tree auto-edge

Also there is a spanning-tree mode command which you can set to "rstp".
spanning-tree mode rstp
Definately set spanning-tree mode rstp as that will allow the spanning tree topology to converge faster. Even if your other switches do not talk rstp it will fall back to stp as needed.

I suspect spanning-tree auto-edge is the default on all the ports, that is, automatically identify edge ports. The port will look for BPDUs for 3 seconds; if there are none it begins forwarding packets.

I would set spanning-tree edgeport on all the access port interfaces and no spanning-tree edgeport on the rest.
 
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PGlover

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Definately set spanning-tree mode rstp as that will allow the spanning tree topology to converge faster. Even if your other switches do not talk rstp it will fall back to stp as needed.

I suspect spanning-tree auto-edge is the default on all the ports, that is, automatically identify edge ports. The port will look for BPDUs for 3 seconds; if there are none it begins forwarding packets.

I would set spanning-tree edgeport on all the access port interfaces and no spanning-tree edgeport on the rest.
Exactly what I did.. Thanks for the confirmation... Any other settings to change to optimize the switch?
 

RKDigital

New Member
Dec 31, 2015
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Can you please post your detailed steps used to flash the LB4M with new firmware.
PGlover, sorry for the late reply, but I'm attaching a text file that has the complete instructions in it to do the following:
  • Using the CLI to flash a firmware to a specific image
  • Transfer firmware using TFTP, and how to decipher where it needs to go
  • Verify image loaded successfully
  • Switch images to newly loaded firmware
  • Activate all ports on unit
  • Verify what IP address Web host is on
  • Finally "write memory"
If you have any issues, there are other good write ups on here, so between mine and the others you should be good. I'll help with what I can.
 

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PGlover

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PGlover, sorry for the late reply, but I'm attaching a text file that has the complete instructions in it to do the following:
  • Using the CLI to flash a firmware to a specific image
  • Transfer firmware using TFTP, and how to decipher where it needs to go
  • Verify image loaded successfully
  • Switch images to newly loaded firmware
  • Activate all ports on unit
  • Verify what IP address Web host is on
  • Finally "write memory"
If you have any issues, there are other good write ups on here, so between mine and the others you should be good. I'll help with what I can.
Thanks for the information.. Is there a way to do this via the Web GUI?
 

RKDigital

New Member
Dec 31, 2015
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Thanks for the information.. Is there a way to do this via the Web GUI?
Yes, that's actually easier, and you can go two ways, either with TFTP or direct from the GUI.

I'm going to assume you don't have a TFTP server up and running so here's the way for the HTTP download to the switch:

  • Login to GUI
  • Open (on left side) "System"
  • Open "System Utilities", under System
  • Open "HTTP File Download" under system utilities (I know, it sounds backwards, you should be uploading to the switch)
  • Now in the main screen make sure you are on "Code"
  • Under that is the "Image Name", you should have something like "Image1", "Image2", etc, pick which one you want to replace.
  • Click the "Browse" button
  • Find the Image.Bin file (whichever version you wish to flash to)
  • Click on "Start File Transfer"
  • DO NOT CLOSE THE WINDOW OF THE WEBPAGE, IT TAKES MORE THAN 5 MINUTES TO UPLOAD AND WRITE TO THE FLASH MEMORY.
  • If you are using Firefox, the spinning circle in the header of the webpage will tell you when it is done (only way other than watching the CLI interface through a terminal program)
  • Once that is done, go to (under the same sub-group of command's) "Dual Image Configuration"
  • You should see your currently active image name, if you want to switch to the other image, pick it from the drop down and click the "Activate" button. Next (still under same commands) go to "Save All Applied Changes" and click the "Save" button.
  • to reboot, go down one more in the command list to "System Reset", and click the reset button.

And as a final note, I caution doing any other configurations in the GUI (I can only confirm the image uploads, downloads do work properly), as others have reported the Web GUI is VERY buggy, and tends to cause major issues in the configuration file on the switch. Invest in a console cable if you have not done so, it's also the only way to recover over to the other image file if for some reason the switch won't boot. Just my 2 cents.
 
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PGlover

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I am still experiencing some network latency with the LB4M switch. It does not seem to be the fastest switch. When browsing file shares, it takes some time to connect to the file share to display the content. Any idea on what may be going on? Should I switch to a CISCO switch? If so, what is a good used CISCO switch with the same port configuration (48 1G ports, and 2 or 4 10G ports).
 

PGlover

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Nov 8, 2014
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I highly doubt its the switch that is causing your file access latency. Its much more likely its your hard drives on your storage medium. Do you have them set to power saving? That will cause tons of initial latency.
The Power setting was set "Balance" on the SAN Server. I changed it to "High Performance". I will monitor to see if that makes a different. Thanks for the suggestion.
 

RKDigital

New Member
Dec 31, 2015
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Okay,

I've been working through the both firmware's (Switch 1.0.2.17 and the Router 5.13.12.14).

Actually the earlier Router (5.13.12.14) firmware seems to have a more stable "Web" interface, in that it correctly writes to the "config" file for the image. Every time I pull the "text" version of the "Config" file to my TFTP server, while using the web version of "Router" firmware, it reads correct to me, and performs all tasks accordingly. If anyone has had configuration issues with the router version, we need to voice those now so everyone will know what needs to be done through the CLI vs. through the Web interface.