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

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fohdeesha

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They're all the exact same hardware wise. Software wise, the brocade firmware with "fan-speed 1" set will run the fans the slowest/quietest

Here's the difference
 
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fohdeesha

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fyi BGP works perfectly (granted there's no reason it shouldn't, same hardware etc)

crazy to think you can get a switch that'll happily do BGP/OSPF/ETC at 10gbe wirespeed across 24 ports for sub-$300

Code:
telnet@LB6M#sh ip bgp summary
  BGP4 Summary
  Router ID: 172.16.111.1   Local AS Number : 100
  Confederation Identifier : not configured
  Confederation Peers:
  Maximum Number of Paths Supported for Load Sharing : 1
  Number of Neighbors Configured : 2
  Number of Routes Installed : 7
  Number of Routes Advertising to All Neighbors : 10
  Number of Attribute Entries Installed : 4
  Neighbor Address  AS#   State   Time     Rt:Accepted Filtered Sent   ToSend
  172.16.102.1      200   ESTAB   1d 1h11m    3        0        4        0
  172.16.103.1      300   ESTAB   3h 5m33s    1        0        6        0
Code:
telnet@LB6M#sh ip bgp route
Total number of BGP Routes: 7
Status A:AGGREGATE B:BEST b:NOT-INSTALLED-BEST C:CONFED_EBGP D:DAMPED
       E:EBGP H:HISTORY I:IBGP L:LOCAL M:LOCAL-MULTIPATH m:NON-LOCAL-MULTIPATH
       S:SUPPRESSED s:STALE
       Prefix             Next Hop        Metric     LocPrf     Weight Status
1      172.16.102.0/24    0.0.0.0         0          100        32768  BL
         AS_PATH:
2      172.16.103.0/24    0.0.0.0         0          100        32768  BL
         AS_PATH:
3      172.16.104.0/24    172.16.102.1    0          100        0      BE
         AS_PATH: 200
4      172.16.111.0/24    0.0.0.0         0          100        32768  BL
         AS_PATH:
5      172.16.122.0/24    172.16.102.1    0          100        0      BE
         AS_PATH: 200
6      172.16.133.0/24    172.16.103.1    0          100        0      BE
         AS_PATH: 300
7      172.16.144.0/24    172.16.102.1               100        0      BE
         AS_PATH: 200 400
 
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mrkrad

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fyi BGP works perfectly (granted there's no reason it shouldn't, same hardware etc)

crazy to think you can get a switch that'll happily do BGP/OSPF/ETC at 10gbe wirespeed across 24 ports for sub-$300


[/CODE]
how many interfaces can you run full bgp4 routing table? on this switch?
 

fohdeesha

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@fohdeesha Unfortunately it doesn't support IPv6 which is mandatory in most networks these days. :(
The worst part is the fact this ASIC 100% supports ipv6 routing - the brocade/quanta/etc firmware just didn't bother implementing it, so it's just sitting there unused


how many interfaces can you run full bgp4 routing table? on this switch?
there's no way you're taking a full table anywhere on a ToR switch, 12k routes max
 

DBD

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Mar 26, 2018
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Hi guys,

I can't figure out how to TFTP the brocadeboot.bin bootloader over to the switch. It lets me do it if I type copy tftp brocadeboot.bin active(or backup) but that's it. I can't tell if that's correct or not and I don't want to brick the switch.

I'm following the guide on brokeaid.com:

"Now that you've chosen, start a TFTP server and copy over brocadeboot.bin from the Bootloader folder. Then take whatever OS image you decided upon, and rename it to brocadeimage.bin - this ensures all the commands in this guide match. Put your new brocadeimage.bin on your TFTP server as well."

but this doesn't really help much at all. Copy it over how? active, backup? What? I tried copy tftp://IP/brocadeboot.bin brocadeboot.bin and that doesn't work either. I can do everything else in this guide but this is pretty annoying. Been messing with this for hours and I give up for tonight.

Any help guys?
 

fohdeesha

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Hi guys,

I can't figure out how to TFTP the brocadeboot.bin bootloader over to the switch. It lets me do it if I type copy tftp brocadeboot.bin active(or backup) but that's it. I can't tell if that's correct or not and I don't want to brick the switch.

I'm following the guide on brokeaid.com:

"Now that you've chosen, start a TFTP server and copy over brocadeboot.bin from the Bootloader folder. Then take whatever OS image you decided upon, and rename it to brocadeimage.bin - this ensures all the commands in this guide match. Put your new brocadeimage.bin on your TFTP server as well."

but this doesn't really help much at all. Copy it over how? active, backup? What? I tried copy tftp://IP/brocadeboot.bin brocadeboot.bin and that doesn't work either. I can do everything else in this guide but this is pretty annoying. Been messing with this for hours and I give up for tonight.

Any help guys?
You're getting WAY ahead of yourself. The "copy" instruction in that intro paragraph means copy those files to your tftp server, not to the switch. It's copied to the switch later on by copying it into a ram address. Read the guide all the way through first, like it says to do
 
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DBD

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Mar 26, 2018
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You're getting WAY ahead of yourself. The "copy" instruction in that intro paragraph means copy those files to your tftp server, not to the switch. It's copied to the switch later on by copying it into a ram address. Read the guide all the way through first, like it says to do
I did read the guide fully actually but this part just confused me. Made me think I had to do it twice? Thank you though. Makes sense now that it means to copy the files to your local folder directory in the tftp server. The first part is poorly worded.

Thanks for your help!
 

mixmansc

Member
Feb 15, 2016
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I wonder if anyone has found whatever was the last "quanta" firmware to mess around with? Looked at one of the actual Quanta firmware guides and they show screenshots of a web interface, lots of IPV6 stuff, etc.
 

Ethan Cain

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Mar 13, 2018
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I wonder if anyone has found whatever was the last "quanta" firmware to mess around with? Looked at one of the actual Quanta firmware guides and they show screenshots of a web interface, lots of IPV6 stuff, etc.
Quanta firmware is mostly tech demo stuff. Quanta built hardware is always (as far as I've seen) re-branded and the code replaced with custom versions depending on the end user (E.G. Microsoft, Amazon). It doesn't mean their firmware doesn't work, but documentation and real-world tested use of it will be limited.
 

Phinitris

New Member
Feb 26, 2018
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I think I just killed one of my Quantas. The switch was running flawlessly with flashed TurboIron firmware for weeks and after I pulled power to test redundancy it doesn't come back up.
It ist stuck during boot at:
Code:
TurboIron Boot Code Version 7.3.0
Enter 'a' to stop at memory test
Enter 'b' to stop at boot monitor
.BOOT ERR: load monitor failed -- HANGING
Does anyone had this issue before? I have other flashed Quantas running just fine so I wonder if this is a hardware defect or caused by the TurboIron firmware? I unfortunately can't access the boot monitor and reflash the image.

Any suggestions? :(
 

fohdeesha

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I've seen that once before on a legitimate switch, it's corruption of the main flash, so the boot code is no longer there in it's entirety. Definitely not caused by the brocade firmware. It could also be bad ram, but that's more rare. If you hit A when it's booting the memory test mode might still work, but I don't remember the options to run an automatic ram test

Were you writing to flash when you pulled power? NOR flash rarely corrupts itself out of nowhere (but that said it does still happen)

If you can ship it to me I can fix it via jtag, if you're in the US shipping is about $25 each way from the last time someone sent me one

Edit: have you tried hitting b while it's booting? Try a few times (power off and fresh boot each time)
 
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Phinitris

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Feb 26, 2018
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Thanks. The memtest does work and does not display any issues. I did not write to flash. The switch was running for weeks and I pulled power without even being logged onto the switch. I believe either the boot ROM is corrupted or the flash is just defect (which is unlikely).
I tried to press B during boot to boot into the monitor but it just displays the same error message.
I live in Germany so shipping will be a little bit more expensive. I will run some additional tests and let you know.
 

Phinitris

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Feb 26, 2018
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Hmm. Always same error. Shipment to the US is not really an option as import/export tax applies which will make shipping cost about $250. Can almost get a new Quanta for that price. :(
 

fohdeesha

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I highly doubt it was pulling the power that caused it, it most likely just revealed an issue that happened weeks ago. The switch only reads from flash during boot (or during special operations like loading configs or TFTP'ing files).

So the boot sector of flash could have been damaged or corrupted weeks ago, but since the switch had already booted and copied all running code into RAM, you wouldn't notice until you pulled power and tried to make it boot again.

What test did you run from the memtest menu? there's quite a few in there. If you have some spare time, I would open up one of your working LB6M's, take the RAM stick out (it's in a socket, laptop ram), and put it in the broken quanta, and see if it can boot then.

if that doesn't work then it's most likely a flash corruption issue - did you purchase this switch on ebay? I know a while ago one ebay seller was drilling a hole/trying to damage the flash chip of all the models he was shipping out.

To write a new uncorrupted bootloader to flash, you'll need a powerPC jtag unit. If you can find a BDI2000 to buy, I can send you the files and walk you through it - however checking the german and US ebay, I don't see any for sale currently. I would ship you mine to let you borrow it, but looking up rates, it would cost $100 just to get it there, nevermind the taxes and return shipping :(
 
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Phinitris

New Member
Feb 26, 2018
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Yes. The boot sector shouldn't even touched even when writing to the flash. I can try and get some RAM from my other switches and test it out but I doubt that the issue is caused by faulty RAM.

Thank you very much for your offer. I will try and check eBay once in a while if I can get my hands on a BDI2000 ;)
 
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fohdeesha

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The ram is worth a try, I've certainly seen weirder things. The wind River ice 2 does support PPC, but sadly these jtag boxes are useless without the accompanying software and board definition/target files, and these are impossible to find unless you pay thousands of dollars (in the case of the ice 2, it seems even the MANUAL isn't public). It took me more than 6 months to find someone on the internet to send me the powerpc firmware files for my bdi2000

(I also just realized you removed this part of your post, so maybe you know this already)
 
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Phinitris

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Feb 26, 2018
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Well I just replaced the bricked switch with another that I pulled out of a test environment. Guess what happened after pulling power ...
So it's definitely not a RAM issue anymore. Weird that no-one else has this issue. Do you have any idea what's causing this. I flashed exactly as your guide said and I rebooted the switches multiple times with the reload command so the boot loader was alright.