Configure Switch Templates

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Navigate using the tab icons. Hover over an icon to see the name of the tab.

Configure > Network Policies > policy_name  > Device Templates > Switch Templates

or

Manage  > Devices > switch_hostname

About Switch Templates

A switch template is a visual depiction of the physical ports on a switch. Use a template to configure how ports function by assigning port types and port usage settings to the template and then applying the template to managed switches.

You can configure the following switch types:

Configure a New Switch Template

To configure a new switch template navigate to Configure > Network Policies.

If you are using the view, select Add Device Template in a network policy card and then Add Switch Template. On the Switch Template page, select Add and the switch model. Or select an existing template from the drop-down list to use as is or modify and then select Copy. You can select the check boxes for multiple models and then Select to apply the same configuration to multiple device templates.

Enter a name for the template and configure the following settings:

STP Configuration: By default, STP (Spanning Tree) is disabled. Toggle the switch to ON and then select one of the following modes:

STP: STP uses a single tree without regard to VLANs.After convergence (a few milliseconds to six seconds), only the root bridge sends configuration BPDUs (Bridge Protocol Data Units), and other switches only relay those BPDUs.

RSTP: RSTP uses a single tree without regard to VLANs. After convergence, all switches send BPDUs every two seconds by default,or as fast as a few milliseconds in the event of a physical link failure.RSTP is the default mode.

Note

Extreme Networks and Dell EMC recommends you enable STP for Dell EMC switches.

STP Bridge Priority: Select an STP priority from the drop-down list. The default is 32768, but you can set this to any value from 0 to 61440, in steps of 4096.

STP Timers: Set the following parameters for the STP timers:

IGMP Settings: By default, IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) is disabled. Toggle the switch to ON and make the following selections:

MTU Settings: Enter a maximum transmission unit value from 1500 bytes to 9600 bytes. The default is 1500 bytes.

PSE Settings: Toggle to ON to configure max power sourcing equipment (PSE), and choose the PSE power settings the switch will provide to PDs (powered devices). This is disabled by default.

PSE Settings: Toggle to ON to configure max power thresholds to generate alerts to ExtremeCloud IQ on exceeding max power levels.

Flow Control: Disabled by default. Toggle the switch to ON to enable Flow Control.

Port Status Alerts: Toggle ON to receive alerts when ports go up or down.

Management Interface Settings: Select one of the following options:

Select Save.

To configure the ports for your switch, see Switch Port Settings

If you are configuring a switch stack, see "Create a Switch Stack Template".

About Switch Stacks

ExtremeCloud IQ can manage both Extreme Networks SR2300-Series and Dell Series switch stacks. The prerequisites and management information are in the following sections.

Extreme Switch Stacks

Extreme Networks SR2300-Series switches can be cabled and managed as a switch stack. You can have up to four switches in a stack. Before you can manage switch stacks in ExtremeCloud IQ, you must meet the following mandatory prerequisites:

General Switch Stack Prerequisites

You must have a ExtremeCloud IQ license key for every switch in the physical stack. For more information see License Information.

Ensure the switches are cabled and powered on in the configuration order you want for the stack (master, standby, and members).

Finally, enter the license key for each switch. As a best practice, onboard keys for the master, then the standby, and then stack members.

Switch Stack Licensing

This information applies to the licensing of stacked switches:

• You must have enough licenses to cover every member of a stack. If you try to onboard more switches than you have licenses for, ExtremeCloud IQ displays a message that the number of switches has exceeded the number of licenses. You must first purchase the appropriate number of licenses before on boarding additional switches.
• Because ExtremeCloud IQ only communicates with a licensed stack master, the license for the stack master must always be current. If the stack master license expires, ExtremeCloud IQ ignores the entire stack. For this reason, you should always onboard the service tag for the stack master first.
• If licenses expire for members of a switch stack, only licensed members of the stack will appear in ExtremeCloud IQ. For example, if two licenses expire for stack members in a 4-unit stack, ExtremeCloud IQ will then display a 2-unit stack.
• If only a subset of the members of a stack is licensed, then even if the master is initially in this subset, if the master changes and the new master is not licensed, ExtremeCloud IQ will no longer recognize, monitor, or allow you to manage the stack. ExtremeCloud IQ will only communicate with a licensed stack master.
• ExtremeCloud IQ indicates in the Devices List if there are stack members that have not been onboarded, or do not have licenses. However, ExtremeCloud IQ does not differentiate between missing stack members never onboarded, missing stack members previously onboarded but removed, and missing stack members that failed an onboarding attempt because of insufficient licenses. An icon and tooltips provide additional information.

Onboard a Switch Stack

Before you onboard an SR2300-Series switch stack, ensure that you have followed the procedures in "Configure a New Switch Template" before you complete the cable connections and power on the switches to form the physical stack.

ExtremeCloud IQ recognizes switches that are not cabled into a powered stack before they are onboarded as individual switches, but not as members of a physical stack.

Note

For ExtremeCloud IQ to recognize the full stack, you need to onboard a license key for every switch in the stack.

Navigate to Manage > Devices, select Add, and perform the following steps:

1. Select Real to add real devices.
2. In the Do you have other devices to add? section, you can either upload a .csv (comma separated values) file with license keys, or you can enter each key manually in the license key field. Remember to separate keys using commas. Select Next.
3. Create a location where your switches will be installed or skip this step for now. You can also skip the next three steps and configure these items later.
4. Review the summary for the switches you have added. If everything is correct, select Finish. To make changes, select Back. To see details about the switches you have added, select Get Details.

The next step is to create a stack template in ExtremeCloud IQ that matches your stack exactly. The final step is to push a network policy to the stack. The following sections describe these processes.

Create a Switch Stack Template

After you have onboarded the switches in your stack, you must create a stack template in ExtremeCloud IQ that exactly matches the physical stack. To do this, perform the following steps:

Note

The terms "unit number", "switch number", and "stack number" all have the same meaning and represent the number assigned to a switch in a stack.

1. Navigate to Configure > Network Policies. Select an existing network policy or create a new network policy for switches. Select Next.
2. In the Device Templates window, select Add and the type of stack from the drop-down list for which you will create a template.
3. In the Stack Template window, enter a name for your template and select the first switch model to add from the Add drop-down list.
4. You will see a visual image of the switch port panel. The switch name appears in the upper right-hand corner of this image and the switch number (Stack No.) appears in the switch panel upper right-hand corner.
5. Continue to add switches to the template until you have added all of the switches in the stack. Make sure the template switch numbers match the numbers of the physical switches. When you finish, select Save. You can now view your stack template from either the Configuration or the Manage tab.

Note

The stack template must match the physical stack exactly. If there is a mismatch, configuration pushes to the stack will fail.

Upload a Network Policy to Your Switch Stack

When you have completed your device template, you are ready to push a network policy to the stack. For more information about switch panel upper right-hand corner it to devices, see Network Policy Settings.

Manage Stack Templates

Once you create a template for a stack, you can edit each switch template to reconfigure the ports. If you change your physical stack, add or remove switches, you must create a new stack template to match the new physical stack. You cannot modify your existing stack template to accommodate changes to the physical stack.

When you create a new stack template, you must also perform a configuration update. If the template does not match the physical stack exactly, the configuration update will fail. The following are examples of common changes that can occur to a stack, with the actions you need to take for each example.

View Stack Information

The stack appears in the Devices List as a single unit with a stack icon in the status column. Select the icon to expand or collapse the information that is displayed for the stack.

Note

The Onboarded column in the Devices List applies to APs only and is always blank for switches.

View Stack Details

To see the stack template that you created for your physical stack, navigate to Manage > Devices > Devices List. Select the hostname of the stack or select the check box for the stack and then select .

The stack template shows health information for all active members of the stack, and contains the following sections:

Console Overview: The first section of the template is an overview showing connection status, the length of stack connect time, any alerts that may have occurred during the past hour, and a location map. (If you did not assign a location when you onboarded the stack units, you have the opportunity to do so here.)

Note

You can only assign a location to an entire stack, not to individual members of the stack.

Stack Members: This section contains a visual depiction of the ports panel for each member of the stack. Icons on the left side above the switch panel display tool tips with the following details, from left to right):

To the right of these icons you will see the name, model, service tag, and connection status above each switch image. The role of each switch (master, standby, member) appears above the top right corner of the switch panel. The switch number appears on the right side of the port panel.

Active Alerts Section: This section shows the number of alarms reported during the past 24 hours.

System Information Section: The table in this section contains information about the members of the stack; including hostname, stack role, model number, switch number, service tag, IPv4 address, MAC address, and the software version running on the switch.

Note

In relatively rare cases, you may need to refresh the entire device page for a switch to appear in the correct place in the stack. This can occur when you add a standalone switch to a stack.

View Port Information for a Switch Stack

To see the status of ports on switches in a stack, navigate to Manage > Devices > Devices List. Select the hostname of the stack or select the check box for the stack and then select . In the left navigation panel, under Monitoring, select Port Status.

Select Select All Ports to see the status of the ports in the stack. The port icons on every switch panel turn green to indicate that they are selected. Port data appears in a table below the templates. To clear the table, select Deselect All Ports.

Hover your mouse over a port to see details about that port. To modify or add a port configuration, select Add or Edit and select the port. A pop-up box appears with the following information:

Configure Stacked Switch Ports

The process for configuring ports on switches that are members of a stack is the same as for standalone switches. For more information, see, Port Types.

Delete a Switch Stack

To delete a switch stack, in Manage > Devices > Devices List, select the check box for the stack you want to delete and then select .

Dell Switch Stacks

To manage Dell switch stacks in ExtremeCloud IQ, you must create stack templates, push configurations, and monitor the health of your stacked switches. For more information about switch stacks, see the Dell hardware documentation for your switch model.

You can have up to twelve N3000-ExtremeCloud IQ or N2000-series switches in a single stack, and up to four Dell N1100- or N1500-series switches in a stack.

Note

You cannot mix switches from different series in the same stack. For example, you can mix models from the N3000 series in one stack, and models from the N2000 series in another stack, but you cannot mix N3000 and N2000 models in the same stack.

Dell Stack Switch Prerequisites

Before managing your Dell switch stacks in ExtremeCloud IQ, you must meet the following mandatory prerequisites:

1. You must have a ExtremeCloud IQ license key, a valid serial number, and a valid service tag for every switch in the physical stack. For more information about licensing, seeLicense Information.
2. Ensure the switches are cabled and powered on in the configuration you want for the stack (master, standby, and members).
3. Onboard each switch with the service tag. As a best practice rule, onboard the service tags for the master, then the standby, and then stack members.
4. For N1500-series models, make sure the SFP+ ports are configured as stacking ports before you onboard the switches in ExtremeCloud IQ.

Switch Stack Licensing

The following important information applies to the licensing of stacked switches:

• You must have enough licenses to cover every member of a stack. If you try to onboard more switches than you have licenses for, ExtremeCloud IQ displays a message that the number of switches has exceeded the number of licenses. You must first purchase the appropriate number of licenses before you can onboard additional switches.
• Because ExtremeCloud IQ only communicates with a licensed stack master, the license for the stack master must always be current. If the stack master license expires, ExtremeCloud IQ ignores the entire stack. For this reason, you should always onboard the service tag for the stack master first.
• If licenses expire for members of a switch stack, only licensed members of the stack will appear in ExtremeCloud IQ. For example, if two licenses expire for stack members in a 6-unit stack, ExtremeCloud IQ will then display a 4-unit stack.
• If only a subset of the members of a stack are licensed, then even if the master is initially in this subset, if the master changes and the new master is not licensed, ExtremeCloud IQ will no longer recognize, monitor, or allow you to manage the stack. ExtremeCloud IQ will only communicate with a licensed stack master.
• ExtremeCloud IQ will indicate on the Devices List if there are stack members that have not been onboarded, or do not have licenses. ExtremeCloud IQ does not differentiate between missing stack members that were never onboarded, missing stack members that were previously onboarded but have since been removed, and missing stack members that failed an onboarding attempt because of insufficient licenses. An icon and tooltips provide additional information.

Note

In this tooltip, ExtremeCloud IQ uses the Dell term “unassigned” to indicate a stack member that is powered off, is uncabled, or has left a stack due to a split stack. In all other places, ExtremeCloud IQ uses the term “disconnected” to indicate these conditions. “Disconnected” and “unassigned” have the same meaning in ExtremeCloud IQ.

Onboard a Dell Switch Stack

To onboard an N1500-series switch stack to ExtremeCloud IQ, Dell recommends that you first configure the SFP+ ports on the switch to be stacking ports, then cable and power on all the switches to form the physical stack.

To onboard a N2000- or N3000-series switch stack to ExtremeCloud IQ, Dell recommends that you first cable and power on the switches to form the physical stack.

Even If switches are not cabled into a powered stack prior to onboarding, ExtremeCloud IQ recognizes them as individual switches, but not as members of a physical stack.

Note

For ExtremeCloud IQ to recognize the full stack, you must onboard a service tag for every switch in the stack.

Navigate to Manage > Devices, select Add, and perform the following steps:

1. Select Real to add real devices.
2. In the Do you have other devices to add? section, you can either upload a .csv (comma separated values) file with Dell service tags and serial numbers in sequential order per device, or you can enter each service tag and serial number manually in the Dell service tags field. Remember to separate tag numbers using commas. Select Next.
3. Create a location where your switches will be installed, or skip this step. You can also skip the next three steps in the wizard and configure these items later.
4. Review the summary for the switches you have added. If everything is correct, select Finish. To make changes, select Back. To see details about the switches you have added, select Get Details.

The next step is to create a stack template in ExtremeCloud IQ that matches your stack exactly. The following sections describe this process.

Create a Switch Stack Template

After you have onboarded the switches in your stack, you must create a stack template in ExtremeCloud IQ that matches the physical stack exactly. To do this, perform the following steps:

1. The terms "unit number", "switch number", and "stack number" all have the same meaning and represent the number that is assigned to a switch in a stack.

1. Navigate to Configure > Network Policies. Select an existing network policy, or create a new network policy for switches. Select Next.
2. In the Device Templates window, select Add and scroll to the bottom of the drop-down list to see the switch stack options: N1500-Series-Stack, N2000-Series-Stack, or N3000-Series-Stack. Select the type of stack for which you will create a template.
3. In the Stack Template window, enter a name for your template and select the first switch model to add to your template from the drop-down list.
4. You will see a visual image of the switch port panel. The name of the switch appears in the upper right-hand corner of this image. The switch number (Stack No.) appears in the upper right-hand corner of the switch panel.
5. Continue to add switches to the template until you have added all of the switches in the stack. Make sure the template switch numbers match the numbers of the physical switches. When you are finished, select Save. You can now view your stack template from either the Configuration or the Monitor tab.

Note

It is critical that the stack template match the physical stack exactly. If there is a mismatch, configuration pushes will fail.

Upload a Network Policy to Your Switch Stack

When you have completed your device template you are ready to push a network policy to the stack. For more information about how to create a network policy and upload it to devices, see Network Policy Settings.

Manage Stack Templates

Once you create a template for a stack, you can edit the stack templates to reconfigure the ports (no other features can be changed in the stack template). If you make a change to your physical stack, for example add or remove devices or change switch models, you must create a new stack template to match the new physical stack. You cannot modify your existing stack template to accommodate changes to the physical stack.

When you create a new stack template, you must also perform a configuration update. If the template does not match the physical stack exactly, the configuration update will fail. The following are examples of common changes that can occur to a stack, with the actions you need to take for each example.

View Stack Information

The stack appears in the Devices List as a single unit with a stack icon in the status column . Select the icon to expand or collapse the information that is displayed.

Note

The Onboarded column in the Devices List applies to APs only and is always blank for switches.

View Stack Details

To see the stack template that you created for your physical stack, navigate to Manage > Devices > Devices List. Select the hostname of the stack or select the check box for the stack and then select .

The stack template shows health information for all active members of the stack, and contains the following sections:

Console Overview: The first section of the template is an overview showing connection status, the length of time the stack has been connected, any alerts that may have occurred during the past hour, and a location map. (If you did not assign a location when you onboarded the stack units, you have the opportunity to do so here.)

Note

You can only assign a location to an entire stack, not to individual members of the stack.

Stack Members: This section contains a visual depiction of the ports panel for each member of the stack. Icons on the left side above the switch panel display tooltips with the following details, from left to right):

To the right of these icons you will see the name, model, service tag, and connection status above each switch image. The role of each switch (master, standby, member) appears above the top right corner of the switch panel. The switch number appears on the right side of the port panel.

Active Alerts Section: Shows the number of alarms reported during the past 24 hours.

System Information Section: The table in this section contains information about the members of the stack; including hostname, stack role, model number, switch number, service tag, IPv4 address, MAC address, and the software version running on the switch.

Note

In relatively rare cases, you may need to refresh the entire device page for a switch to appear in the correct place in the stack. This could happen if a standalone switch that has already been onboarded is later added to a stack.

View Port Information for a Switch Stack

To see the status of ports on switches in a stack, navigate to Monitor > Devices > Device List. Select the hostname of the stack (or select the check box for the stack and then select . In the left navigation bar, under Monitoring, select Port Status.

Select Select All Ports at the top of the page to see the status for all of the ports in the stack. The port icons on every switch panel turn green to indicate that they are selected. Port data appears in a table below the templates. To clear the table, select Deselect All Ports.

Hover your mouse over a port to see details about that port. A pop-up box appears with the following information:

Configure Stacked Switch Ports

The process for configuring ports on switches that are members of a stack is the same is for standalone switches. For more information, see, Port Types.

Delete a Switch Stack

To delete a switch stack, perform the following steps:

1. In Manage > Devices > Device List, select the check box for the stack you want to delete.
2. Select .

Note

Warning: Do not reset a stacked switch to the factory defaults. For N1500 models, this action also returns the SFP+ port configurations from stack ports to the default, which breaks the stack.