Extreme 3802 Installation Guide

Page of 394
 
Features
Extreme Networks Consolidated "i" and "e" Series Hardware Installation Guide
217
Fans
The BlackDiamond 6816 and 6804 switches have front-accessible fan trays at the side of the chassis. The 
BlackDiamond 6808 switch has one fan tray that is accessed from the back of the switch. All the 
BlackDiamond fan trays can be hot-swapped.
ExtremeWare monitors the fan trays in the BlackDiamond 6816 switch for failure and overheat 
conditions. All fan failures and over temperature events cause the switch to send alerts to the network 
management station or to the switch log. See the ExtremeWare Software User Guide for more information 
on switch monitoring.
CAUTION
Do not cover or obstruct the fan ventilation holes at the side of the unit. Doing so can result in 
overheating and possible damage to the BlackDiamond switch. Thermal sensors will shut down the 
BlackDiamond switch if the internal temperature exceeds 60 degrees Celsius.
Switch Connectivity and the Backplane 
Switch connectivity is an important aspect of the BlackDiamond 6800 series switch. The MSM is the 
internal switch fabric for data being sent between I/O modules. No configuration information is stored 
on the I/O modules; all configuration information is stored on the MSM(s). 
Each MSM has two CPUs for protocol processing and network management. For full redundancy, you 
can install up to four MSMs in the BlackDiamond 6816 switch and up to two MSMs in the 
BlackDiamond 6808 and BlackDiamond 6804 switches.
The BlackDiamond 6800 series switch has a 100% passive backplane; that is, the backplane does not 
contain any active components that can fail. A passive backplane increases the reliability of the switch. 
The I/O modules treat the backplane as one logical connection and use the same load sharing 
(trunking) algorithm as the front facing ports to distribute the switch traffic.
There are multiple Gigabit links from the I/O modules to the MSMs, and most I/O modules have eight 
full-duplex Gigabit Ethernet links to the backplane that provide 16 bps full duplex bandwidth to the 
backplane. If one of the backplane Gigabit Ethernet links fails, ExtremeWare reroutes the switch traffic 
from the failed backplane Gigabit Ethernet link to another available backplane link. Moving the traffic 
to another available backplane link prevents disruption of switch connectivity. 
With ExtremeWare 6.1 or later, you can configure the backplane load-sharing algorithm. The default 
load-sharing algorithm uses ingress port-based trunking. In an Internet bridging or routing 
environment, the address-based algorithm may be more appropriate. For more information about how 
to configure the backplane load-sharing algorithm, see the ExtremeWare Software User Guide.
Packet Switching and Routing 
Each installed I/O module has Gigabit Ethernet links that attach to the backplane. The backplane 
divides these links equally among the MSMs that are installed in the switch. For example, if you install 
an F48Ti module, it has eight Gigabit Ethernet links to the switch backplane. If you have a 
BlackDiamond 6816 and install four MSMs, each module receives two of the eight Gigabit Ethernet 
links. If you have a BlackDiamond 6808 or a BlackDiamond 6804 and install two MSMs, each module 
receives four of the eight Gigabit Ethernet links.