Enabling Fabric Attach on an interface

Use this procedure to enable Fabric Attach on an interface (port, static MLT or LACP MLT). Enabling FA on an MLT enables FA on all ports of the MLT. If your platform supports channelization, FA can also be enabled on channelized ports.

Before you begin

Verify that FA is enabled globally on the switch.

About this task

Enabling FA on a port or MLT is necessary for element discovery.

On the FA Server, FA is enabled globally by default. However, you must explicitly enable FA on the desired port or MLT interface. FA is successfully enabled on an MLT only if all ports of the MLT have FA successfully enabled. Enabling FA automatically configures LLDP on all ports. Tagging is configured and spanning tree is disabled.

Procedure

  1. Enter Interface Configuration mode:

    enable

    configure terminal

    interface GigabitEthernet {slot/port[/sub-port][-slot/port[/sub-port]][,...]} or interface mlt <1-512>

    Note

    Note

    If the platform supports channelization and the port is channelized, you must also specify the sub-port in the format slot/port/sub-port.

  2. Enable FA on the interface:

    fa enable

  3. Optional: Disable FA on the interface:

    no fa enable

    Caution

    Caution

    Disabling FA flushes all FA element discovery and I-SID-to-VLAN mappings associated with the interface.

  4. View the FA configuration status:

    show fa interface [disabled-auth] [enabled-auth] [mlt <1–512>] [port <{slot/port[/sub-port] [-slot/port[/sub-port]] [,...]}>]

Example

Enable FA on a port:

Switch:1>en
Switch:1#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
Switch:1(config)#interface gigabitethernet 1/2
Switch:1(config-if)#fa enable
Switch:1(config-if)#exit
Switch:1(config)#

Enable FA on an MLT:

Switch:1>en
Switch:1#conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
Switch:1(config)#interface mlt 10
Switch:1(config-mlt)#fa enable
Switch:1(config-mlt)#exit
Switch:1(config)#

Verify that FA is enabled on the interfaces.

Note

Note

When FA is enabled, message authentication is enabled by default. The authentication key is set to the default value and appears encrypted on the output.

Switch:1(config)#show fa interface 
 
===================================================================
                            Fabric Attach Interfaces 
===================================================================
INTERFACE    SERVER   MGMT     MGMT     MSG AUTH MSG AUTH          
             STATUS   ISID     CVID     STATUS   KEY               
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Port1/1      enabled  0        0        enabled  ****
Port1/2      enabled  0        0        enabled  ****              
Mlt1         enabled  0        0        enabled  ****              
Mlt10        enabled  0        0        enabled  ****              
-------------------------------------------------------------------
4 out of 4 Total Num of fabric attach interfaces displayed
-------------------------------------------------------------------

For example, disable FA on port 1/1 and Mlt1.

Switch:1(config)#interface gigabitethernet 1/1
Switch:1(config-if)#no fa enable
Switch:1(config-if)#exit
Switch:1(config)#interface mlt 1
Switch:1(config-mlt)#no fa enable
Switch:1(config-mlt)#exit

Verify that FA is disabled on port 1/1 and Mlt1.

Switch:1(config)#show fa interface 
 
===================================================================
                            Fabric Attach Interfaces 
===================================================================
INTERFACE    SERVER   MGMT     MGMT     MSG AUTH MSG AUTH          
             STATUS   ISID     CVID     STATUS   KEY               
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Port1/1      disabled 0        0        enabled  ****              
Port1/2      enabled  0        0        enabled  ****              
Mlt1         disabled 0        0        enabled  ****              
Mlt10        enabled  0        0        enabled  ****              
-------------------------------------------------------------------
4 out of 4 Total Num of fabric attach interfaces displayed
-------------------------------------------------------------------

View the FA interfaces that have authentication enabled:

Switch:1(config)#show fa interface enabled-auth 

======================================================================
                            Fabric Attach Interfaces
======================================================================
INTERFACE    SERVER   MGMT     MGMT     MSG AUTH MSG AUTH                        
             STATUS   ISID     CVID     STATUS   KEY                             
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Port1/2      enabled  0        0        enabled  ****                            
Mlt10        enabled  0        0        enabled  ****
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2 out of 2 Total Num of fabric attach interfaces displayed
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Optionally, disable FA message authentication on 1/1 and Mlt1.

Switch:1(config)#interface gigabitethernet 1/1
Switch:1(config-if)#no fa message-authentication
Switch:1(config-if)#exit
Switch:1(config)#interface mlt 1
Switch:1(config-mlt)#no fa message-authentication
Switch:1(config-mlt)#exit

Verify that both FA and FA message authentication are disabled on 1/1 and Mlt1, as indicated by the SERVER STATUS and MSG AUTH STATUS fields respectively.

Switch:1(config)#show fa interface 
 
===================================================================
                            Fabric Attach Interfaces 
===================================================================
INTERFACE    SERVER   MGMT     MGMT     MSG AUTH MSG AUTH          
             STATUS   ISID     CVID     STATUS   KEY               
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Port1/1      disabled 0        0        disabled ****              
Port1/2      enabled  0        0        enabled  ****              
Mlt1         disabled 0        0        disabled ****              
Mlt10        enabled  0        0        enabled  ****              
-------------------------------------------------------------------
4 out of 4 Total Num of fabric attach interfaces displayed
-------------------------------------------------------------------

View the FA interfaces that have authentication disabled:

Switch:1(config)#show fa interface disabled-auth 

=======================================================================
                            Fabric Attach Interfaces
=======================================================================
INTERFACE    SERVER   MGMT     MGMT     MSG AUTH MSG AUTH              
             STATUS   ISID     CVID     STATUS   KEY                   
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Port1/1      disabled 0        0        disabled ****                  
Mlt1         disabled 0        0        disabled ****
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2 out of 2 Total Num of fabric attach interfaces displayed
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Variable definitions

The following table defines parameters for the show fa interface command.

Variable

Value

disabled-auth

Displays the FA interfaces (port or MLT) that have authentication disabled.

enabled-auth

Displays the FA interfaces (port or MLT) that have authentication enabled.

<1–512>

The valid range for MLT ID.

Displays FA configuration on the specified MLT interface.

port {slot/port[/sub-port] [-slot/port[/sub-port]] [,...]}

Identifies the slot and port in one of the following formats: a single slot and port (slot/port), a range of slots and ports (slot/port-slot/port), or a series of slots and ports (slot/port,slot/port,slot/port). If the platform supports channelization and the port is channelized, you must also specify the sub-port in the format slot/port/sub-port.

Displays FA configuration on the specified port.