Extended Edge Switching

ExtremeXOS 22.5 introduces support for Extended Edge Switching.

Extended Edge Switching Architecture shows the Extended Edge Switching switching architecture, based on the IEEE 802.1BR specification, comprising one or two controlling bridges (CBs), and one or more bridge port extenders (BPEs). In the Extreme implementation, BPEs are V400 Virtual Port Extenders, and CBs are ExtremeXOS switches.

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Extended Edge Switching Architecture
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Since BPEs are managed like slots in a chassis under a single management domain, multiple layers of a traditional network can be reduced from a configuration and management perspective, greatly simplifying the network operation.

As opposed to expanding the network using additional switches, BPEs provide the following benefits:

  • No console. BPEs are configured and managed through the controlling bridge (CB) user interface, so there is no need to connect a terminal console connection to each BPE.
  • No out-of-band management.
  • Single point of license management.
  • Single point for configuring/debugging/diagnostics.
  • Single node when managed by Extreme Management Center or other management software products.

Supported Platforms

The following switches are supported as controlling bridges: Summit X670-G2 and ExtremeSwitching X690 series switches

The following V400 Virtual Port Extender models are available:
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V400 Virtual Port Extender Models

Model Numbers Description
V400-24t-10GE2 V400 Series 24 10/100/1000BASE-T, 2 1000/10GBaseX unpopulated SFP+ ports, fixed power supply and fan.
V400-24p-10GE2 V400 Series 24 10/100/1000BASE-T PoE+, 2 1000/10GBaseX unpopulated SFP+ ports, fixed power supply and fans, and optional redundant power supply.
V400-48t-10GE4 V400 Series 48 10/100/1000BASE-T, 4 1000/10GBaseX unpopulated SFP+ ports, fixed power supply and fan.
V400-48p-10GE4 V400 Series 48 10/100/1000BASE-T PoE+, 4 1000/10GBaseX unpopulated SFP+ ports, fixed power supply, fans, and optional redundant power supply. Power supply is for PoE devices only.

For information about which optics are supported with the V400 Virtual Port Extenders, see the Extreme Hardware/Software Compatibility and Recommendation Matrices.

Limitations

In the Extended Edge Switching architecture, Layer-2, Layer-3, and multicast packet forwarding and filtering operations take place on the controlling bridge. The controlling bridge switch and attached BPEs constitute a single, extended switch system. Therefore, the Extended Edge Switching system assumes the scale and limits from the specific controlling bridge model (for example, Summit X670-G2 or ExtremeSwitching X690 series switches) in use. For applicable limits, see the Limits tables for the controlling bridge you are using.

  • Certain ExtremeXOS features are not supported or have limitations. For information, see the ExtremeXOS 22.5 User Guide.
  • A maximum of 48 attached BPEs is supported.
  • A maximum of 4 levels (tiers) of upstream BPEs is supported.
  • A maximum of 4 upstream ports (in a LAG) per BPE is supported.
  • Stacking cannot be enabled with VPEX enabled.

New CLI Commands

enable vpex

disable vpex

configure vpex ports port_list slot slot_num

configure slot slot description [ slot_description | none ]

unconfigure vpex ports port_list slot

show vpex

show vpex bpe

show vpex bpe {slot slot_num} {environment}

show vpex bpe {slot slot_num} {statistics} {detail}

show vpex ports ports_list

show vpex ports {port_list} ecp statistics

show vpex ports {port_list} {statistics} {detail}

show vpex bpe { slot slot_num} cpu-utilization

show vpex bpe { slot slot_num} version detail

start orchestration mlag peer_name

stop {orchestration}

Changed CLI Commands

Changes are underlined.

reboot {[time mon day year hour min sec] | cancel} {slot slot-number } {all}

The following show command is changed to display information about the new Port Extension TLV:

show lldp {port [all | port_list]} neighbors {detailed}

The following show command is changed to display the name of a BPE:

show slot {slot {detail} | detail }