Connecting a QFX3500 Node Device to a Copper-Based QFX3000-G QFabric System Control Plane Network

A QFX3000-G QFabric system control plane and management network is formed by connecting the QFX series devices in your network to two Virtual Chassis composed of EX4200 or EX4300 switches. If you are creating a copper-based control plane network, you use four EX Series Ethernet switches in each Virtual Chassis. QFX3500 Node devices have an RJ-45 or SFP management board. Use the RJ-45 management ports (labeled C0 and C1) to connect the QFX3500 Node device to each Virtual Chassis (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: QFX3500 Node Device Control Plane Connections

• QFX3500 Node devices with an RJ-45 management board installed. The RJ-45 management board provides two RJ-45 1-Gbps management ports labeled C0 and C1.

• Virtual Chassis EX4200-48T or EX4300-48T switch members with an SFP+ uplink module installed.

Before you begin to connect a QFX3500 Node device to the QFX3000-G QFabric system control plane network:

• Install your QFabric system hardware (Director group, Interconnect devices, and Node devices). For more information, see Installing and Connecting a QFX3100 Director Device, Installing and Connecting a QFX3008-I Interconnect Device, Installing and Connecting a QFX3600 or QFX3600-I Device, and Installing and Connecting a QFX3500 Device.

• Install your Virtual Chassis hardware (EX4200 or EX4300 switches). For more information, see Installing and Connecting an EX4200 Switch or Installing and Connecting an EX4300 Switch.

• Create two Virtual Chassis of four members each.

  • See Cabling EX4200 or EX4300 Series Switches Virtual Chassis for a QFX3000-G QFabric System Control Plane.

  • See Configuring an EX4200, EX4500, or EX4550 Virtual Chassis (CLI Procedure) or Configuring an EX2300, EX3400, or EX4300 Virtual Chassis.

• Interconnect the two Virtual Chassis switches using the 10-Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ uplink ports. For more information, see Interconnecting Two Virtual Chassis for Copper-Based QFX3000-G QFabric System Control Plane Redundancy.

• Ensure that you have two RJ-45 patch cables available. For cable specifications, see Cable Specifications for Copper-Based Control Plane Connections for the QFabric System.

• Use Table 1 to determine the QFX3500 Node device-to-Virtual Chassis port mappings. Specific ports have been reserved on the Virtual Chassis to connect to each of the QFabric system device types. Such design simplifies installation and facilitates timely deployment of a QFabric system. It also permits the use of a standard Virtual Chassis configuration (see Example: Configuring the Virtual Chassis for a Copper-Based QFX3000-G QFabric System Control Plane).

  Note

  The numerical identifiers for each Node device below are not preassigned to the Node devices that are shipped to you. They represent the order in which you connect the Node devices. For example, the first Node device port (Node 0) is connected to port ge-0/0/0 on each Virtual Chassis.

  Table 1: QFX3500 Node Device-to-Virtual Chassis Copper-Based Control Plane Port Assignments

  Member 0	Member 1	Member 2	Member 3
  Node 0: ge-0/0/0	Node 32: ge-1/0/0	Node 64: ge-2/0/0	Node 96: ge-3/0/0
  Node 1: ge-0/0/1	Node 33: ge-1/0/1	Node 65: ge-2/0/1	Node 97: ge-3/0/1
  ...	...	...	...
  Node 30: ge-0/0/30	Node 62: ge-1/0/30	Node 94: ge-2/0/30	Node 126: ge-3/0/30
  Node 31: ge-0/0/31	Node 63: ge-1/0/31	Node 95: ge-2/0/31	Node 127: ge-3/0/31

1. Connect one end of the first RJ-45 patch cable to the first management port (labeled C0) on the Node device management board.
2. Connect the other end of that cable to the appropriate member and port on the Virtual Chassis. See Table 1.
3. Connect one end of the second RJ-45 patch cable to the second management port (labeled C1) on the Node device management board.
4. Connect the other end of that cable to the appropriate member and port on the second Virtual Chassis. This should be the same member number and port number that you connected to in Step 2. For example, if you connected the first cable to ge-0/0/0 on the first Virtual Chassis, you connect the second cable to ge-0/0/0 on the second Virtual Chassis.
5. Repeat this procedure for each Node device.