Turbocharge your Quanta LB6M - Flash To Brocade TurboIron - Big Update!

[fohdeesha]

UPDATE 7/11/2018 - It's been discovered that the version 8 Brocade firmware originally on the site was an internal-use only, untested beta version. It has been removed from the guide and replaced with the latest v7 mainstream release which is rock stable, well tested and has had a few more months of fixes added. Please revert to v7 ASAP if you are still running v8! Instructions are on the site.

UPDATE 2/26/18 - we've figured out a lot of new things since this thread was made (the need to set the MAC address, changing fan speeds, the management port oddness, etc). If you've already flashed your switch, it's worth taking a look at the guide website again. See this post for more info - https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...o-brocade-turboiron.17971/page-12#post-182744

I'm sure you've seen attempts to try and get alternative OS's on the LB6M due to how crippled the included Fastpath build is - and after a lot of exploring bootloaders, @verygeeky and myself were finally able to cleanly flash the LB6M over to a Brocade TurboIron 24x. They're identical hardware, a flash procedure for the bootloader just needed to be figured out.

Some new features you get compared to Fastpath, definitely not an exhaustive list though:

• 1gbE SFP support (including rj45 copper SFP's)
• Much quieter fans with the "fan-speed 1" command
• BGP
• Properly working STP/RSTP/MSTP
• QoS, traffic shaping/limiting/ACL etc
• Q-in-Q tagging
• Saner syntax (especially the config of VLANs and routing)
• Many new multicast features
• SFlow with a config that doesn't disappear on reboot
• Larger and better supported SNMP MIB
• Deeper and more configurable syslog features
• More than 2000 pages of applicable documentation included

*This does not add IPv6 routing*

The guide is available here - Flashing LB6M To Brocade - FBOM

The markdown source is on our github at this link, if you have any suggestions to make the guide easier to follow, submit a PR - GitHub - Fohdeesha/quanta-brocade: Flashing brocade firmware to Quanta LB6M

Number of flashed chassis is now over 100+ - quite low risk if you can copy/paste.

I'd like to thank @verygeeky for all his help and being the brave first person to hit "reset" after completely replacing his bootloader, not sure if his switch would ever boot again. I'd also like to thank @fvanlint for being the first STH member to get with us on discord and help us develop the guide, and be the first to follow it.

MD5 hash of brocade firmware zip 07/11/18 : 68aa7643a121c19fa4b8c84d7f6f2843

 

[nkw]

Nice! I might suggest since the firmware .zip is being served from a non-https site it might be a good idea to post a hash of the file here or somewhere secure just to be safe.

 

[fohdeesha]

Nice! I might suggest since the firmware .zip is being served from a non-https site it might be a good idea to post a hash of the file here or somewhere secure just to be safe.

Can do, I'll add the md5 of the zip to this thread when I get home. Unless you have a more-favoriter hash type. Unrelated: how do you get an avatar? Slip Patrick some bills?

 

[PigLover]

Very nice. Now starting to regret unloading mine...

Well done and thank you.

 

[Toby]

Thanks for this. I'm anxious to try this. I really would like to setup IPv6 routing on this thing.
I'm curious though. Your site claims the LED's won't work and that the original Brocade TurboIron 24x didn't have LED's. However, the manual turboiron24x-hardwareguide.pdf included in the ZIP talks about LED's for the 10GB interfaces on page 16-17. Perhaps the code to control the LED's is just different from the LB6M and the official Brocade TurboIron 24x?

 

[fohdeesha]

Thanks for this. I'm anxious to try this. I really would like to setup IPv6 routing on this thing.
I'm curious though. Your site claims the LED's won't work and that the original Brocade TurboIron 24x didn't have LED's. However, the manual turboiron24x-hardwareguide.pdf included in the ZIP talks about LED's for the 10GB interfaces on page 16-17. Perhaps the code to control the LED's is just different from the LB6M and the official Brocade TurboIron 24x?

good catch! it seems you're right, all the picture we found of the 24x didn't show any LEDs, but it seems theyre tucked under the ports and rather opaque: https://ssli.ebayimg.com/images/g/eF4AAOSw79RZlM4d/s-l1600.jpg

veryGeeky has an actual turboiron on order so we can explore some more, maybe that will reveal something

 

[verygeeky]

I've got a legit Brocade on it's way and will see what I can find.

Also, if anyone has other BRCM reference design boxes, suggest them and I'd like to buy another six-pack and see what we can do. Lots of the pre-Force10 Dell gear are good targets. D-Link has a 24 port SFP+ box that is _definately_ another candidate (same ASIC, same proc).

 

[d.ohlin]

I've got a legit Brocade on it's way and will see what I can find.

Also, if anyone has other BRCM reference design boxes, suggest them and I'd like to buy another six-pack and see what we can do. Lots of the pre-Force10 Dell gear are good targets. D-Link has a 24 port SFP+ box that is _definately_ another candidate (same ASIC, same proc).

Awesome! I honestly don't care that much about the lack of the 2nd management port, but having the LED's would be awesome! Fingers crossed!

 

[brendantay]

So... anyone selling an LB6M?

 

[mangodoc]

@fohdeesha & @verygeeky "veryGeeky has an actual turboiron on order so we can explore some more, maybe that will reveal something"

I see JTAG in your future !

 

[fohdeesha]

Awesome! I honestly don't care that much about the lack of the 2nd management port, but having the LED's would be awesome! Fingers crossed!

To be honest, I wouldn't get your hopes up. The two most likely reasons for this are 1. They both use I2C I/O expanders to control all of them, and the I2C expander/devices on the Brocade use different addresses. 2. It could be that the I2C bus on the brocade is coming off of an entirely different I/O pin set on the PHY/cpu than it does on the quanta.

One case would require decompiling the firmware completely (which nobody that I know of has figured out how to do, but I wouldn't put it past a certain friend of mine), finding the address, changing it, and recompiling. if it's a different set of I/O pins it would requires a lot of very teeny soldering to change to the correct SDA/SCL pins.

I asked the firmware engineer if it would even be worth him taking a look at (the firmware), and his reply was "if you want link status and activity, use SNMP like a big boy" - not very helpful, I know

 

[Patrick]

So... anyone selling an LB6M?

FYI - $50 off for STH forum members on new ones:
The Quanta LB6M Deal Thread

 

[d.ohlin]

So... anyone selling an LB6M?

Sure, once they skyrocket on up to $600-$800 because of this method LOL jkjk

To be honest, I wouldn't get your hopes up. The two most likely reasons for this are 1. They both use I2C I/O expanders to control all of them, and the I2C expander/devices on the Brocade use different addresses. 2. It could be that the I2C bus on the brocade is coming off of an entirely different I/O pin set on the PHY/cpu than it does on the quanta.

One case would require decompiling the firmware completely (which nobody that I know of has figured out how to do, but I wouldn't put it past a certain friend of mine), finding the address, changing it, and recompiling. if it's a different set of I/O pins it would requires a lot of very teeny soldering to change to the correct SDA/SCL pins.

I asked the firmware engineer if it would even be worth him taking a look at (the firmware), and his reply was "if you want link status and activity, use SNMP like a big boy" - not very helpful, I know

Ok, good to know. It's obviously not the end of the world, but it would be nice haha.

Also - any progress on the front of determining if it's possible to flash back to stock after flashing it to brocade? Or is this at least on the radar to eventually be looked at? It obviously shouldn't be an issue but since I don't even have the switch quite yet I figure I might as well use the meantime to fully understand the ins and outs of it all, and I figure just in case it's always nice to have that as an option Thanks!

EDIT: After reading this article I have one more question - how exactly does the Brocade licensing on this work? Does this mean that legally I need a legitimate 24x switch in order to legally be able to flash and use the Brocade software on the Quanta switch, but also that nothing is needing to actually be entered into the Quanta license-wise after flashing for everything to function properly?

Or does it mean that physically the Quanta will not work until the Brocade licensing is actually installed on it? In other words, are there additional licensing steps that you have to complete on the Quanta after doing the flashing in order for everything to function? Thanks!

 

[StammesOpfer]

EDIT: After reading this article I have one more question - how exactly does the Brocade licensing on this work? Does this mean that legally I need a legitimate 24x switch in order to legally be able to flash and use the Brocade software on the Quanta switch, but also that nothing is needing to actually be entered into the Quanta license-wise after flashing for everything to function properly?

Or does it mean that physically the Quanta will not work until the Brocade licensing is actually installed on it? In other words, are there additional licensing steps that you have to complete on the Quanta after doing the flashing in order for everything to function? Thanks!

Legally of course you have to have acquired the right you use the software. Nothing that has to be entered though... Cause who in their right mind would try and flash this software on another device (certainly not a bunch of STH guys).

 

[d.ohlin]

Legally of course you have to have acquired the right you use the software. Nothing that has to be entered though... Cause who in their right mind would try and flash this software on another device (certainly not a bunch of STH guys).

LOL that's what I figured I just wanted to be sure I currently have zero 10G equipment (24x or otherwise) and so the last thing I would want would be to be the new owner of a very effective brick that just so happened to cost $300

 

[neggles]

Any restrictions on SFP+ module usage with this f/w?

 

[fohdeesha]

Any restrictions on SFP+ module usage with this f/w?

nope, Brocade allows anything. However you don't get sfp monitoring information like the below:

telnet@FCX1(config)#sh optic 1/3/1
 Port  Temperature   Tx Power     Rx Power       Tx Bias Current
+----+-----------+--------------+--------------+---------------+
1/3/1   32.7460 C  -002.6688 dBm -002.8091 dBm    5.472 mA
        Normal      Normal        Normal         Normal

unless it sees Brocade or Foundry branded optics

 

[fohdeesha]

Also - any progress on the front of determining if it's possible to flash back to stock after flashing it to brocade? Or is this at least on the radar to eventually be looked at?

It's on the radar to poke around at but it's pretty low on the list, the brocade FW adds so much stuff that none of us have any interest in flashing back. We'll still be looking into it once we get some free time though. Essentially a command just needs to be found in the brocade bootloader that allows raw copying from ram to flash and vice versa similar to the cp.b command in Quanta's u-boot

 

[neggles]

nope, Brocade allows anything. However you don't get sfp monitoring information like the below:

telnet@FCX1(config)#sh optic 1/3/1
 Port  Temperature   Tx Power     Rx Power       Tx Bias Current
+----+-----------+--------------+--------------+---------------+
1/3/1   32.7460 C  -002.6688 dBm -002.8091 dBm    5.472 mA
        Normal      Normal        Normal         Normal

unless it sees Brocade or Foundry branded optics

Awesome I wonder if it'll pull the temp/power info from an FS.com unit that's set up to emulate a Brocade module - probably. Thanks!

 

[fohdeesha]

Awesome I wonder if it'll pull the temp/power info from an FS.com unit that's set up to emulate a Brocade module - probably. Thanks!

oh absolutely, if you tell FS to flash a module to brocade they'll just show up 100% like a brocade module