Quanta LB4M 48-Port Gigabit Switch Discussion

[Matt C]

If you get seriously stuck PM me, I think I've performed almost every mistake that can be made.

Might take you up on that... Planning on a 6 port 802.13ad LACP from our primary switch which thanks to ?? in management is MSP controlled for our VoIP system. I have the Trunk group set... Luckily while VoIP is on VLAN 41, all other traffic is on standard VLAN1, so screwing around on the Quanta side should be minimal...

I hope I can isolate most of the traffic requiring gig on the quanta, all clients are switched through their VoIP phones @ 100mbit... Going to set up two more 4 port LAGs on the Quanta for ESXi for client facing ESXi traffic. Maybe a few more LAGs so I can team some nics on some of the standalone servers...

Any deal breakers you see with this plan? Anything to look out for??

Cheers,

Matt

 

[Visseroth]

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone on this thread. Believe it or not I've read the whole thing. I'm still trying to get used to the CLI. I haven't as of yet flashed back to the 1.0.2.17 so as to enable the web gui and I don't recall if someone said if the web gui still worked if you flashed back to 1.0.2.17 then re-enabled 1.1.0.8.
I'm assuming that in 1.1.0.8 that it's still broke even if the web gui was enabled in the previous version.
I just purchased one of these switches. I was hesitant because people had said these things are loud as all heck but min really isn't that bad.
I also noticed some comments about power draw.
I can confirm 63W on startup, dropping to 53W then back to 60W on idle with one power supply. Plugging in the second power supply adds 10W.

Anyhow, my question... Has anyone managed to keep the web gui working on 1.1.0.8 or is it just too buggy and everyone is sticking to 1.0.2.17?

Again, thanks everyone that has posted, you're not just helping those asking questions but also those that stumble on this thread such as I!

 

[rEd2k]

As I undertand it the web gui has never worked at all on 1.1.0.8. No one has ever used a web gui on that firmware because it's impossible, and boy I wish I was wrong about that lol. If someone has made it possible I'm sure there would be a lot of happy people on this thread including me

1.0.2.17 works well enough, and Im content with it (kinda have to be). The CLI is always a sure thing though, it never seems to have issues

 

[Visseroth]

LOL, well I couldn't remember if someone had mentioned it or not so I thought I'd double check. I may just stick to the CLI, but yea, it is VERY unfortunate that the web gui doesn't work in 1.1.0.8. Really it's unfortunate that the OS is even as buggy as it is and that there isn't a opensource replacement for it.

Thanks for answing, I guess I'll do some more toying around before I swap out my switch and put this one to use.

 

[Visseroth]

Well more questions... Go figure.

So I downloaded the link found here.....

The file names on mine are H-Search-Ent-esw-lb4m-qc8541-V66S-CS-QHr1v1m1b8.opr and Ent-esw-xgs3-LB4M-dni8541-VSM-QHr1v0m2b17.opr and can be downloaded from this link.

Unzipped the file, put it in a publicly accessable ftp folder, confirmed anonymous access to the folder and tried to update the backup with it and received "operation failed"

(Switch) #copy tftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/lb4m.5.13.12.14.bin backup

Mode........................................... TFTP
Set Server IP.................................. xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Path........................................... ./
Filename....................................... lb4m.5.13.12.14.bin
Data Type...................................... Code
Destination Filename........................... backup

Management access will be blocked for the duration of the transfer
Are you sure you want to start? (y/n) y
TFTP code transfer starting
0 bytes transferred...

File transfer failed!

Heck, I even tried scp as my server is ssh capable, I confirmed the path and still received a failed!

I confirmed network access by pinging the firewall via the CLI. SNTP is working and I am currently booting to the default image...

 #show bootvar

Image Descriptions

active : default image
backup :


Images currently available on Flash

--------------------------------------------------------------------
unit      active      backup     current-active        next-active
--------------------------------------------------------------------

    1     1.1.0.8     1.1.0.8            1.1.0.8            1.1.0.8

(10GbSwitch) #ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Pinging xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with 0 bytes of data:

Reply From xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: icmp_seq = 0. time= 0 usec.

----xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx PING statistics----
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip (msec) min/avg/max = 0/0/0

Any ideas?

 

[|DSI|]

publicly accessable ftp folder,

You need TFTP server, not FTP

 

[Visseroth]

I verified access by opening explorer and using tftp://
opened directly to the folder holding the file

 

[aj84]

Which TFTP server software are you using?

I used tftpd which always worked for me...you can find it here: TFTP server
After starting tftpd you'll only need to switch to the folder with the firmware (Browse-Button)...and perhaps you need to open port 69/UDP in your windows firewall (or simply disable the firewall temporarily to take it out of equation).

 

[Visseroth]

Well, hmm, something must not be right with my server or the switch doesn't like connecting to it. That application seemed to do it. The file is transferred and in place. Thanks!

 

[J Hacker]

If anyone's still interested, I've managed to splice U-Boot into the "Husky" opr image. You can install it like any other opr image, then boot into it and run "update bootcode" from the enable prompt. Note that you will need to switch to 115200 baud after.

http://wiki.subproto.com/_media/lb4m-husky-uboot.opr

Indigo lb4g images will install and boot but drop into the BCM diagnostic shell after failing to probe the I2C devices. I'm working on creating a fork of the lb4g source that will support the lb4m.

 

[spyrule]

thats one heck of an undertaking. Good luck!

Actually, curious... what is the benefit of this merge? (I'm unfamiliar with the LB4G)

 

[eroji]

Forgive my ignorance. So I have this switch connected to my pfsense box. I logged into the web GUI, and I see that it detected the pfsense as default gateway. So I assume I shouldn't have to do any additional configuring for each subnet. I created a number of VLANs and defined the subnet for each VLAN. I'd like to configure DHCP to grab IPs from pfsense but I am not sure sure how to do that. Can anyone provide some guidance?

 

[eroji]

Looks like it may not be worthwhile trying to DHCP off pfsense. How do I configure DHCP on the switch itself? I see the DHCP section but not quite sure what all to put in the fields.

 

[spyrule]

In my experience, keep your core devices with static IPs (firewall, router, core switches) This makes troubleshooting network issues much, much easier. let all the connected devices be dhcp based (albeit, I prefer assigned IPs for most of my "static" devices, and only use true dhcp range for wireless devices. Personal preference mind you.

side note: If your not using Active Directory or a Directory server that serves DNS/DHCP, I'd keep your dhcp on your pfsense box, unless your running your LB4M in router mode.

 

[J Hacker]

thats one heck of an undertaking. Good luck!

Actually, curious... what is the benefit of this merge? (I'm unfamiliar with the LB4G)

The end goal would be to make available an inexpensive OpenFlow-capable switch. The LB4G, a switch with similar hardware, already supports the old Indigo OpenFlow code, but those switches are scarce. The LB4M is cheap and plentiful on Ebay but no one bothered to port Indigo to it.

 

[eroji]

Anyone created VLANs on LB4M and found a way to create a SVI or set default gateway of each subnet?

 

[Chuntzu]

Your looking for dhcp helper. In layer two this is not present. I have yet to flash the layer3 firmware, but it's possible that this function would be included. If not routing and remote access role in windows server container a dhcp helper function. I'm sure there is and equivalent function in linux, just haven't looked for it myself.

 

[Torbjørn Sandvik]

I finaly got my hands on a LB4M, after looking true ebay every day. I found a seller in Norway that had a few.
This one got layer 3 routing firmware. VxWorks5.5.1 and 1.1.0.8. cli, and web gui works fine.
I manage to get IP from my dhcp server. And started configuring.
I manage to make a VLAN, and communicate inside it.
But how can I get inter VLAN routing working? So I can communicate between VLAN's?

 

[eroji]

I finaly got my hands on a LB4M, after looking true ebay every day. I found a seller in Norway that had a few.
This one got layer 3 routing firmware. VxWorks5.5.1 and 1.1.0.8. cli, and web gui works fine.
I manage to get IP from my dhcp server. And started configuring.
I manage to make a VLAN, and communicate inside it.
But how can I get inter VLAN routing working? So I can communicate between VLAN's?

That's the problem I was having. Couldn't find any way to configure something like SVI or default gateway for each VLAN, so all it could do is talk within the subnet. How do you know you have the routing firmware? It seems like all the talk about flashing to the 5.13.12.14 may be what I need but I am not certain.

 

[Torbjørn Sandvik]

That's the problem I was having. Couldn't find any way to configure something like SVI or default gateway for each VLAN, so all it could do is talk within the subnet. How do you know you have the routing firmware? It seems like all the talk about flashing to the 5.13.12.14 may be what I need but I am not certain.

I know it's the routing firmware because it says so..

(Routing) #show tech-support

***************** Show Version ******************

Switch: 1

System Description............................. FASTPATH Routing
Machine Type................................... LB4G 48x1G 2x10G
Machine Model.................................. LB4M
Serial Number.................................. QTFCPW9160099
FRU Number..................................... 1
Part Number.................................... BCM56514
Maintenance Level.............................. A
Manufacturer................................... 0xbc00
Burned In MAC Address.......................... 00:23:8B:03:86:F3
Software Version............................... 5.13.12.14
Operating System............................... VxWorks5.5.1
Network Processing Device...................... BCM56514_A0
Additional Packages............................ FASTPATH QOS
                                                FASTPATH Multicast
                                                FASTPATH Routing
--More-- or (q)uit


***************** Show SysInfo ******************

System Location................................
System Contact.................................
System Object ID............................... 1.3.6.1.4.1.4413.1.2.2
System Up Time................................. 3 days 22 hrs 8 mins 54 secs
10/100 Ethernet/802.3 interface(s)............. 2
Gig Ethernet/802.3 interface(s)................ 0
10Gig Ethernet/802.3 interface(s).............. 1
Virtual Ethernet/802.3 interface(s)............ 1

MIBs Supported: