Rack Types

Rack Type Overview

Rack Types in Blueprints

Racks in running blueprints can be added, deleted, also can be edited (as of version 3.2). Editing Racks can be done either by changing the Rack Types manually, or by modifying the Blueprints directly, e.g. Changing Link Speeds, Adding Servers, Adding & Removing Links, etc. which is so-called “Flexible Fabric Expansion (FFE)”. Rack Types in Blueprints have timestamps. FFE operations will modify the embedded Rack Types then update the timestamps. Embedded Rack Types can be exported into the global catalog. FFE provides complete flexibility in fabric design and the day-2 operations.

Rack types define the type and number of leafs and servers to be used in a rack build. They use logical devices (abstractions of physical devices that specify port roles and speeds) so you can design your racks before selecting a specific vendor’s device. Rack types are then used when creating templates.

Numerous predefined rack types are included in the global catalog based on common rack designs. You can create your own, clone, edit, and delete existing ones as described in the sections below.

Rack types include the following details:

Summary

Name

17 characters or fewer, and (optional) description

Connectivity Type

L2 - Connects to servers via VLAN or VXLAN.

L3 - IP addresses assigned to switch ports, IP address and BGP routing enabled via server agent for servers

IP Version (for L3 connectivity type)

IPv4, IPv6, or IPv4-IPv6

Leafs

Leaf Name

64 characters or fewer

Leaf Logical Device

Used as ToR leaf switch network device(s)

Links per spine (and speed)

Number of leaf-spine links and their speed

Redundancy Protocol

None

For single-homed server connections

MLAG

For dual-homed server connections. Both switches use the same logical device

Peer Links (and speed)

Number of links between MLAG devices, and their speed

Peer Link Port Channel ID

L3 peer links (and speed)

Applies when connectivity type is L3. Used mainly for BGP peering between border MLAG leafs in non-default security zones. Mainly used for routed L3 traffic to solve EVPN blackhole issues or if upstream routers go down. L3 peer-links act as backup paths for the north-south traffic. Other than border leaf it can be used on any other ToR leafs as well for avoiding blackholing traffic for a VRF.

L3 Peer Link Port Channel ID

ESI - Junos ONLY (New in version 3.3.0)

Ethernet Segment ID assigned to the bundled links. Specifying device platforms other then Juniper Junos (such as Cisco, Cumulus, Arista) will result in blueprint build errors. See Juniper EVPN Support for information about Juniper ESI support and ESI MAC MSB blueprint settings for more information about ESI.

Important

When designing racks, make sure the intended platform supports the chosen redundancy protocol. For example, SONiC does not support L3 MLAG peers, and ESI is only supported on Junos.

External Facing

When enabled, connectivity is configured from the leaf to the external router. In an MLAG pair, external connectivity is applied to both leafs. For example, 2 x external links with MLAG enabled create four external links.

Access Switches - Junos ONLY (New in version 3.3.0)

Limited support. See Adding Access Layer Switches for more information.

Servers

Name

64 characters or fewer

Server Count

Number of servers in the set

Port Channel ID Min and Max

Port channel IDs define aggregated Ethernet interfaces that connect each leaf device to the server. default: 1-4096. You can leave the default or (as of version 3.3.0) you can specify it.

Logical Device

The server network device

Link

Name

64 characters or fewer

Switch

Leaf

LAG Mode (for L2 connectivity type)

LACP (Active)

LACP (Passive)

Static LAG (no LACP)

No LAG

Physical link count per leaf (and link speed)

Number of links from each server to each leaf and their speed. If using dual leaf switches, this number should be half of the total links attached to the server.

From the web interface, navigate to Design > Rack Types.

Cloning Logical Device

Instead of entering all details for a new logical device, you can clone an existing one, give it a new name and customize it.

Creating Rack Type

1. From the web interface, navigate to Design > Rack Type and click Create Rack Type.
2. Enter a name, (optional) description, then select a connectivity type (and IP version if L3 connectivity).
3. Configure the panel as required for your design.
   • See rack type overview above for details and the example below for a specific use case.
   • To add a Logical link, click Add New Link.
   • To add an additional Server Group, click Add New Server Group and enter/select details.
   • To clone or delete a Logical Link or Server Group within a Rack Type, click the Clone icon or Delete icon (top-right of section).

Creating Rack Type - Example

This example shows how to create a rack type for a dual-connected L2 rack with two AOS-48x10+6x100-1 logical device leaf switches, each with 4-100 GbE spine links and forty-eight dual-connected 10 GbE L2 servers.

1. From the list view (Design > Rack Types) click Create Rack Type, enter a name (MyFirstRackType in this example), then select L2 connectivity type.

2. In the Leafs section, enter a name (MyLeaf1 in this example), select AOS-48x10+6x100-1 from the Leaf Logical Device drop-down list, then change the Links per spine to 2. Notice the Topology preview on the right side shows the first leaf.

   

3. Click Add New Leaf and enter a name for the second leaf (MyLeaf2 in this example), select AOS-48x10+6x100-1 from the Leaf Logical Device drop-down list, then change the Links per spine to 2. Notice the Topology preview on the right side now shows both leafs.

4. Click Servers, click Add new server group and enter a name (MyServerGroup1 for this example), change the Server Count to 20, then select AOS-2x10-1 from the Logical Device drop-down list. Notice that the Topology preview changes as you configure the rack type.

   

5. Click Add link, enter a name (MyLogicalLink1 in this example), select MyLeaf1 from the Switch drop-down list, select LACP (Active) for LAG Mode, then change Physical link count per leaf to 2.

6. Click Add new server group, and enter a name (MyServerGroup2 for this example), change the Server Count to 20, then select AOS-2x10-1 from the Logical Device drop-down list.

7. Click Add link, enter a name (MyLogicalLink2 in this example), select MyLeaf2 from the Switch drop-down list, select LACP (Active) for LAG Mode then change Physical link count per leaf to 2.

8. If you’d like to see a preview of the logical devices that you’ve configured in the rack type, click Logical Devices in the Preview section.

   

9. Click Create to create the rack type in the global catalog and return to the list view. The details view is shown below:

   

Editing Rack Type

1. To edit the rack type in the global catalog, either from the list view (Design > Rack Type) or the details view, click the Edit button for the rack type to edit.
2. Make your changes.
3. Click Update (bottom-right) to update the rack type in the global catalog and return to the list view.

Editing Rack types in Templates

Changes to rack types in the global catalog do not affect rack types that have already been embedded into templates. If the intent is for a template to use a modified rack type, then after editing the rack type it must be updated in the template.

Editing Rack types in Blueprints

Rack types that are being used in a running blueprint, can be edited (as of version 3.2.0). See Editing Rack in the staged blueprint section for more information.

Deleting Rack Type

1. Either from the list view (Design > Rack Type) or the details view, click the Delete button for the rack type to delete.
2. Click Delete to delete the rack type and return to the list view.