|
Feature |
Product |
Release introduced |
|---|---|---|
|
Zero Touch Fabric Configuration |
5320 Series |
Fabric Engine 8.6 |
|
5420 Series |
VOSS 8.4 |
|
|
5520 Series |
VOSS 8.2.5 |
|
|
5720 Series |
Fabric Engine 8.7 |
|
|
LLDP Fabric Connect TLV |
5320 Series |
Fabric Engine 8.6 |
|
5420 Series |
VOSS 8.4 |
|
|
5520 Series |
VOSS 8.2.5 |
|
|
5720 Series |
Fabric Engine 8.7 |
You can use Zero Touch Fabric Configuration to deploy Fabric-capable switches in a plug and play manner with no initial configuration. The switches form a new Fabric automatically or they can connect to an existing Fabric that is Auto-sense-capable, obtain an IP address and Domain Name System (DNS) information from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server using the onboarding I-SID/VLAN, which then permits the system to automatically onboard to the management servers, such as ExtremeCloud IQ or ExtremeCloud IQ ‑ Site Engine, to conduct actual provisioning deployment of the switch. For more information about Auto-sense, see Auto-sense.
Zero Touch Fabric Configuration automatically configures Shortest Path Bridging MAC (SPBM) and IS-IS without user intervention if you boot the switch in Zero Touch Deployment-ready configuration mode, meaning you boot without a configuration file. Zero Touch Fabric Configuration uses LLDP to signal Fabric capability and exchanges SPB backbone VLAN IDs information to ensure seamless joining to any existing fabric deployment. The switches use the chassis MAC addresses as their system ID. To ensure participation in the correct area, newly joining ZTF switches listen to IS-IS update packets for area information. A unique nick-name is as assigned by a pre-configured nick-name server switch. For more information, see Zero Touch Deployment.
Important
To add new Zero Touch Fabric Configuration devices or implement Zero Touch Fabric Configuration on existing devices, the network requires a nickname server and reachability to the DHCP server. How you implement this depends on if the network is a new deployment or an existing Fabric network that you upgrade. In a new deployment, you can meet the network requirements with one node, known as a seed node. In an existing network, functions may already exist on different nodes. For more information, see Fabric Engine Release Notes.
Zero Touch Fabric Configuration uses the port-based Auto-sense features, that enables all ports on the switch, by default, and all ports operate in Auto-sense mode. With the support of Auto-sense, Zero Touch Fabric Configuration onboards all ports on the switch to an existing network, without having to manually enable each port. Auto-sense automatically detects neighbor capabilities and performs the configuration on the port to reach the desired connectivity with the neighbor without user invention.
With Auto-sense functionality, ports on a switch can detect whether they connect to a Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) device, a Fabric Attach (FA) client, FA Proxy, Voice IP devices, or an undefined host, and then make the necessary configuration. For more information about Auto-sense, see Auto-sense.
If you start two nodes in a network without an existing configuration file, then Zero Touch Fabric Configuration, through Auto-sense, dynamically establishes an IS-IS adjacency between them. For more information, see Establishing IS-IS Adjacencies.