Quanta LB6M (10GbE) -- Discussion

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Crumble

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Jan 25, 2017
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I have VSAN up and running with this switch, both VSAN 6.2 and VSAN 6.5. My setup appears to have the same feature set yours does:

Additional Packages............................ FASTPATH QOS
FASTPATH Routing

I enabled IGMP querier on my VSAN VLAN, and confirmed multicast functioned as expected using tcpdump-uw (vSphere 6.5 has a nifty VSAN tester in the GUI that will test multicast too)

Evan, if you're still watching this thread, can you upload the firmware binary that's on your switch somewhere? I'd like to see if that makes a difference since your switch has "FASTPATH Routing" and many other switches here do not.
 
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Crumble

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Jan 25, 2017
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Reading through this (now huge) thread, there seemed to be some issues getting layer-3 configuration to work on the lb6m, or if it was only useful as a layer-2 switch.

I just got a pair of LB6Ms and had no problem getting layer-3 up and running, including a simple ospf network.

simple topology:
topswitch on port 0/8 <> bottomswitch on port 0/9

Config on topswitch:
interface 0/8
routing
ip address 10.2.1.2 255.255.255.252
exit
router ospf
router-id 1.1.1.1
network 10.2.1.0 0.0.0.255 area 0.0.0.0
---

Config on bottomswitch:
interface 0/9
routing
ip address 10.2.1.1 255.255.255.252
exit
router ospf
router-id 2.2.2.2
network 10.2.1.0 0.0.0.255 area 0.0.0.0
default-information originate always
redistribute static subnets



OSPF:
(bottomswitch) #show ip ospf nei


Router ID Priority IP Address Neighbor State Dead
Interface Time
--------------- -------- --------------- ----------- ------------------ ----
1.1.1.1 1 10.2.1.2 0/9 Full/BACKUP-DR 30

(topswitch) #show ip rou

Route Codes: R - RIP Derived, O - OSPF Derived, C - Connected, S - Static
B - BGP Derived, IA - OSPF Inter Area
E1 - OSPF External Type 1, E2 - OSPF External Type 2
N1 - OSPF NSSA External Type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA External Type 2

O E2 0.0.0.0/0 [110/10] via 10.2.1.1, 00h:00m:09s, 0/8
C 10.2.1.0/30 [0/1] directly connected, 0/8



ping'ng the other switch:
(topswitch) #ping 10.2.1.1
Pinging 10.2.1.1 with 0 bytes of data:

Reply From 10.2.1.1: icmp_seq = 0. time= 6693 usec.

----10.2.1.1 PING statistics----
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip (msec) min/avg/max = 6/6/6

and it's responding to arp:
(topswitch) #show arp

Age Time (seconds)............................. 300
Response Time (seconds)........................ 1
Retries........................................ 4
Cache Size..................................... 6144
Dynamic Renew Mode ............................ Enable
Total Entry Count Current / Peak .............. 2 / 2
Static Entry Count Configured / Active / Max .. 0 / 0 / 128

IP Address MAC Address Interface Type Age
--------------- ----------------- -------------- -------- -----------
10.2.1.1 08:9E:01:5A:0A:A5 0/8 Gateway 0h 1m 44s
10.2.1.2 08:9E:01:6C:74:A9 0/8 Local n/a
 
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cafcwest

Member
Feb 15, 2013
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Richmond, VA
Reading through this (now huge) thread, there seemed to be some issues getting layer-3 configuration to work on the lb6m, or if it was only useful as a layer-2 switch.

I just got a pair of LB6Ms and had no problem getting layer-3 up and running, including a simple ospf network.

As someone who is going to pick up a pair of these in the near future, where did you obtain yours? (in the hopes that if I buy from the same source, I can get L3 enabled units.
 

xhypno402

New Member
Dec 7, 2016
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Reading through this (now huge) thread, there seemed to be some issues getting layer-3 configuration to work on the lb6m, or if it was only useful as a layer-2 switch.

I just got a pair of LB6Ms and had no problem getting layer-3 up and running, including a simple ospf network.

simple topology:
topswitch on port 0/8 <> bottomswitch on port 0/9

Config on topswitch:
interface 0/8
routing
ip address 10.2.1.2 255.255.255.252
exit
router ospf
router-id 1.1.1.1
network 10.2.1.0 0.0.0.255 area 0.0.0.0
---

Config on bottomswitch:
interface 0/9
routing
ip address 10.2.1.1 255.255.255.252
exit
router ospf
router-id 2.2.2.2
network 10.2.1.0 0.0.0.255 area 0.0.0.0
default-information originate always
redistribute static subnets



OSPF:
(bottomswitch) #show ip ospf nei


Router ID Priority IP Address Neighbor State Dead
Interface Time
--------------- -------- --------------- ----------- ------------------ ----
1.1.1.1 1 10.2.1.2 0/9 Full/BACKUP-DR 30

(topswitch) #show ip rou

Route Codes: R - RIP Derived, O - OSPF Derived, C - Connected, S - Static
B - BGP Derived, IA - OSPF Inter Area
E1 - OSPF External Type 1, E2 - OSPF External Type 2
N1 - OSPF NSSA External Type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA External Type 2

O E2 0.0.0.0/0 [110/10] via 10.2.1.1, 00h:00m:09s, 0/8
C 10.2.1.0/30 [0/1] directly connected, 0/8



ping'ng the other switch:
(topswitch) #ping 10.2.1.1
Pinging 10.2.1.1 with 0 bytes of data:

Reply From 10.2.1.1: icmp_seq = 0. time= 6693 usec.

----10.2.1.1 PING statistics----
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip (msec) min/avg/max = 6/6/6

and it's responding to arp:
(topswitch) #show arp

Age Time (seconds)............................. 300
Response Time (seconds)........................ 1
Retries........................................ 4
Cache Size..................................... 6144
Dynamic Renew Mode ............................ Enable
Total Entry Count Current / Peak .............. 2 / 2
Static Entry Count Configured / Active / Max .. 0 / 0 / 128

IP Address MAC Address Interface Type Age
--------------- ----------------- -------------- -------- -----------
10.2.1.1 08:9E:01:5A:0A:A5 0/8 Gateway 0h 1m 44s
10.2.1.2 08:9E:01:6C:74:A9 0/8 Local n/a
What firmware version?
 

Crumble

New Member
Jan 25, 2017
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Here's my 'show ver'. The two switches that are running L3 appear to be are identical (other than serial/mac) -

Code:
(topswitch) #show ver

Switch: 1

System Description............................. Quanta LB6M, 1.2.0.18, Linux
                                                2.6.21.7
Machine Type................................... Quanta LB6M
Machine Model.................................. LB6M
Serial Number.................................. QTFCRW2490351
FRU Number..................................... 1LB6BZZ0STL
Part Number.................................... BCM56820
Maintenance Level.............................. A
Manufacturer................................... 0xbc00
Burned In MAC Address.......................... 08:9E:01:6C:74:A6
Software Version............................... 1.2.0.18
Operating System............................... Linux 2.6.21.7
Network Processing Device...................... BCM56820_B0
Additional Packages............................ FASTPATH QOS

(topswitch) #
And 'show run' agrees there's just one package (FASTPATH QOS) installed. Interestingly (this may be a software bug?), the "show tech-support" indicates there are 2 packages -- FASTPATH QOS and FASTPATH ROUTING:

Code:
(topswitch) # show tech-support
 ***************** Show Version ******************
Switch: 1

System Description............................. Quanta LB6M, 1.2.0.18, Linux
                                                2.6.21.7
Machine Type................................... Quanta LB6M
Machine Model.................................. LB6M
Serial Number.................................. QTFCRW2490351
FRU Number..................................... 1LB6BZZ0STL
Part Number.................................... BCM56820
Maintenance Level.............................. A
Manufacturer................................... 0xbc00
Burned In MAC Address.......................... 08:9E:01:6C:74:A6
Software Version............................... 1.2.0.18
Operating System............................... Linux 2.6.21.7
Network Processing Device...................... BCM56820_B0
Additional Packages............................ FASTPATH QOS
                                                FASTPATH Routing
I'm curious if others see different packages installed. I see reference to entering license keys using "license advanced" in the fastpath software guides, but that command doesn't seem to actually exist (or at least - it's not obvious how to 'enable' that command) in the quanta version compiled for the lb6m.

The switch came with 2 different images on flash (1.2.0.14 and 1.2.0.18), and was booting up to 1.2.0.14 when I received it. I switched it early on to the 1.2.0.18 image that was on flash, and didn't do any testing with 1.2.0.14.

Code:
(topswitch) #show bootvar

Image Descriptions

 active :
 backup :

 Images currently available on Flash

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

    1    1.2.0.18    1.2.0.14           1.2.0.18           1.2.0.18
As far as I can tell, it's the exact same 1.2.0.18 image that's on the lb6m shared google drive:
LB6M – Disk Google
 

Fritz

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2015
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Call me crazy but optics are great since if you short out/fry something the surge won't jump to your other equipment.
Yep, I've had my network isolated from my modem/router via fiber for a couple of years now. Learned the hard way tho.
 
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jzeus

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Jan 22, 2017
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I use this one Amazon.com: Gopala 6 FT FTDI Chip USB to RJ45,Usb Console Cable for Cisco Routers: Computers & Accessories

and

screen /dev/tty.usbserial-A105YGJZ 9200

to connect to the switch on a mac.

If you don't have a serial port, I suggest the TU-S9 available from Amazon for $7.65, and it is prime if you are a prime user. I have purchased about 200 of these for the engineers at work. If you are a windows person, the main issue you will have with the Tu-s9 is that is can change serial ports (com1, com2, etc). It will tend to stay at the same place for some users, and others see it change almost every time they use it. I think it depends on how many other things you connect to with usb. All of the serial to usb converts do this. To find it's com number on windows 7, go to your start button, then to devices and printers, and scroll to the bottom and you will see it. On windows 10 it is settings> devices, bluetooth, printers>connected devices> and it will show up as a prolific USB to serial com port (comX).

Once you know the com port number, you can use putty. Don't download putty from a "free downloads" site, as they will pack it with a malware payload or have an old version. Putty is a term program that can do telnet, serial, ssh, rlogin. use serial, your assigned com number, 9600. You can customize putty, and don't forget to save your settings so they are easy to use again. Putty is what I use as a ssh client into all of my other systems.

Sorry if you already know all of this, but I work with a team of router engineers, and every once in a while a new engineer will be having trouble, and he will confide in me that he is having difficulty with this "proprietary" rs232 stuff... I'm an old guy that has been using rs232 since 1978, and back then rs232 was used like Ethernet is used today. So I have been making rs232 cables since before many of you were born, probably. The point is, rs232 is old, and if you aren't old, you may have never seen it.

I'm a Cisco hack, and I started one of the first ISP's in 1987, and ran it for 20 years, and I've designed routers and IOT devices, and I manage a lab that designs and supports one of the largest deployed routers on the planet... So while I'm not the end-all expert, I can sometimes be helpful. I have a Cisco 4948 (and a number of other cisco models) in my home lab, and the two 10g ports on it were not enough... So like the rest of you here, I'm here for the scoop on the LB6M. My $350 LB6M has not arrived yet, but I hope to use it to provide high speed networking to my home FreeNAS file servers, and the workstations and VMware servers that will use it for bulk storage. I use VLANs and layer 3 devices extensively, and I'm hoping the lb6m will give me what I need. I would rather have a Cisco, but they cost too much.

I see from elsewhere in the thread that I paid too much for my lb6m... Oh Well...
 

andy

Member
Oct 10, 2016
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Canada
Dumb question but anymore measure the power draw AFTER changing out the fans and removing a psu?

120watts is killer where I am, but I can live with 50-60
 

Drewy

Active Member
Apr 23, 2016
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I would be very surprised if changing the fans could reduce power consumption by 50%, not gonna happen.
I typically run mine on one psu and it does make a difference, but not a lot. Only a few watts.

Yes the thing sucks power but to get a lower consuming 24 10GBit switch you are going to pay much more. My logic is that the price difference between the lb6m and a lower power alternative would have to "pay back" in a couple of years. At the moment I haven't found a switch that will do that, not with 24 ports.
 

Jonathan

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Apr 18, 2016
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First post on the forum, :p
The switch just arrive :)
I would like to know your thought about my project. I would like to make the switch quieter because right now the 3 fans in the back are 55dba fan and i cannot have this at home.
I'll be running only one PSU at a time.
I will replace the two PSU fan for Noctua 40mm.
I would put two Noctua SF-F12 120m fan intake in the front and another one in the back has outake.
I would remove the 3 fan in the back and cover the hole/grill.
Tks
img_0793(1).jpg
img_0794(1).jpg
 

jmoll

Member
Jan 1, 2017
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Hi, I made also a 3rd hole to the top. I did add the 3rd one because the condensators are at the back and I think if something fails because of the heat it is going to be the condensators. My setup is now 2 x 120mm fans in the front pushing in. And 1 x 140mm at the back sucking out. Just a moment I can take a photo.
 

jmoll

Member
Jan 1, 2017
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Hi, I made also a 3rd hole to the top. I did add the 3rd one because the condensators are at the back and I think if something fails because of the heat it is going to be the condensators. My setup is now 2 x 120mm fans in the front pushing in. And 1 x 140mm at the back sucking out. Just a moment I can take a photo.
This is a fullretard setup. My ups is louder than this thing at the moment. It's not pretty but works. I didn't yet throw it in the rack cabinet but once is there no one is going to see.


lb6mfanmod2.jpg

Code:
(FASTPATH Routing) #show environment

Temp (Celsius)................................. 38
Fan Speed, RPM................................. 1060
Fan Duty Level................................. 50%
Temperature traps range: 0 to 45 degrees (Celsius)

Temperature Sensors:
Unit     Sensor  Description       Temp (Celsius)  State
----     ------  ----------------  --------------  --------------
1        1                         38              Normal

Fans:
Unit   Fan     Type        Speed      Duty level State
----   ------  ----------  --------   ---------- --------------
1      1       Fixed       1060              50% Operational
1      2       Fixed       1111              50% Operational
1      3       Fixed       1031              50% Operational

Power supplies:
Unit     Power supply  Type          State
----     ------------  ----------    --------------
1        1             Removable     Operational
1        2             Removable     Not powered
 
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andy

Member
Oct 10, 2016
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I would be very surprised if changing the fans could reduce power consumption by 50%, not gonna happen.
I typically run mine on one psu and it does make a difference, but not a lot. Only a few watts.

Yes the thing sucks power but to get a lower consuming 24 10GBit switch you are going to pay much more. My logic is that the price difference between the lb6m and a lower power alternative would have to "pay back" in a couple of years. At the moment I haven't found a switch that will do that, not with 24 ports.
Power isn't the only factor :p

I agree with your logic, but for me UPS capacity and cooling might hake that pay back period a lot shorter!

Still probably worth it to get this though
 

Jonathan

New Member
Apr 18, 2016
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My man! Mod that bad boy just like Jmoli did! Post pics and let us know how it turns out!
The noctua fan got back order -_-. I think i will do the mod with cheap fan during the week if i have time.
Start to read all the thread to find some information and documentation. I'm at page 9 where you put your photo Sleyk. I have found already alot of information. tks to you Sleyk....
I'm thinking doing a video about it (switch/mod) because there is not alot of video out there about the switch.
I will be my first video/editing also :p
 
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Gerk

New Member
Oct 24, 2016
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Oakville, ON, Canada
Thanks to everyone here who has done all the sleuthing, collecting and posting. I ordered one of these switches and hopefully should have it any time. My needs are simple, I just need to push more packets faster on a couple of VLANs. Hoping this gets the job done!
 

ArcticFox_RU

New Member
Jan 22, 2017
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Could some to repost it: http://203.75.58.18/UPFile/QSSC-LB630SR (LB6M)_Datasheet.pdf
Original source is down.

Some more sources:
HP Quanta LB6M 10GB 24-Port SFP Switch QSSC-LB630SR 90 Day Warranty VxWorks5.5.2 | eBay
There is few new things:
Code:
Software Version............................... 0.2
Operating System............................... VxWorks5.5.2
Network Processing Device...................... BCM56820 REV 1
Additional Packages............................ FASTPATH QOS
                                                FASTPATH Multicast
                                                FASTPATH IPv6
Code:
 2009/04/10             lb6mq-b-1.0.0410.bin Boot-Rom image       Y     1056424
 2009/04/10                  factory_default    Config File       N       24567
 2009/04/10            lb6mq-r-2.00.0410.biz Operation Code       N    10095224
 2010/09/16                      default.cfg    Config File       Y       25339
 2009/05/13            lb6mq-r-2.00.0513.biz Operation Code       Y    10326443
/code][/I]
 
Last edited:

Jonathan

New Member
Apr 18, 2016
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Before messing witthe switch i'm testing it right now, i'm having to problem to access the 9Gb bandwidth with iperf on two windows system.Win7 and Win 10 VM in esxi. I'm not really sure what is the cause of the problem.
Code:
[  4]   0.00-1.00   sec   427 MBytes  3.58 Gbits/sec The switch
[  4]   1.00-2.00   sec   510 MBytes  4.28 Gbits/sec
[  4]   2.00-3.00   sec   525 MBytes  4.40 Gbits/sec
[  4]   3.00-4.00   sec   527 MBytes  4.42 Gbits/sec
The two network card are this one MNPA19-XTR with those DAC cable SFP-H10GB-CU3M.
The switch is still in the factory state.
In ESXI i see (Mellanox MT26448 [ConnectX EN 10GigE, PCIe 2.0 5GT/s] )
I'm not really sure what could be the problem.
  1. But i'm sure i've put the card in an PCIe 3 slot even if it's showing pci2, I even try all port on the motherboard if the pci3 would show up. (Intel S1200V3RPS).
  2. SFP-H10GB-CU3M might be a fake one, i've bought it from usa cheapest...
  3. I've read page from 1-15 and people seems to have small problem with MTU but everone had like 9Gb...
  4. Do I the config that a few had give? normaly for layer 2 i don'T think it's necessary.
Tks guys, will do a video soon about my mod
 

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jmoll

Member
Jan 1, 2017
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Before messing witthe switch i'm testing it right now, i'm having to problem to access the 9Gb bandwidth with iperf on two windows system.Win7 and Win 10 VM in esxi. I'm not really sure what is the cause of the problem.
Code:
[  4]   0.00-1.00   sec   427 MBytes  3.58 Gbits/sec The switch
[  4]   1.00-2.00   sec   510 MBytes  4.28 Gbits/sec
[  4]   2.00-3.00   sec   525 MBytes  4.40 Gbits/sec
[  4]   3.00-4.00   sec   527 MBytes  4.42 Gbits/sec
The two network card are this one MNPA19-XTR with those DAC cable SFP-H10GB-CU3M.
The switch is still in the factory state.
In ESXI i see (Mellanox MT26448 [ConnectX EN 10GigE, PCIe 2.0 5GT/s] )
I'm not really sure what could be the problem.
  1. But i'm sure i've put the card in an PCIe 3 slot even if it's showing pci2, I even try all port on the motherboard if the pci3 would show up. (Intel S1200V3RPS).
  2. SFP-H10GB-CU3M might be a fake one, i've bought it from usa cheapest...
  3. I've read page from 1-15 and people seems to have small problem with MTU but everone had like 9Gb...
  4. Do I the config that a few had give? normaly for layer 2 i don'T think it's necessary.
Tks guys, will do a video soon about my mod
Hi I had similar performances. Now I am getting quite steady 9Gb/s +speeds with Iperf 3. I have cheap dac's and same nics as u have. I have several windows 10 machines and one linux fileserver. No virtualization.

My checklist for speed is :

-On windows machines the drivers

-mtu I have 9014 on win machines, 9000 on linux, maxed out on switch

-windows driver... max out send and receive buffers to 4096 or something like that

-turn off antivirus. For me this affected suprisingly much to the iperf test speeds.
(Somepeople did recommend turning off the windows firewall aswell... I didn't)

For me in the beginnig when I had not done these steps. Iperf 3 would give me better results when I tried with grazy big packets something like -w1024k or even -w3G. And some times the first short test would be slower than the following one. I don't need these hacks anymore... now it is working steady.

If nothing works then I would start troubleshooting the pcie slot.

I am not in the office now and can't check but I think I have somewhere PCIe 2.0 5GT/s aswell and it still does work. So I wouldn't worry about that too much. But if you can't breach the 5Gb/s barrier with iperf then you might be in trouble. Could be faulty dac aswell.... But then I would expect even slower speeds.