How many C7000 enclosure can be linked using the up link/down link ports in the middle of the OA's?

[chuckk281]

Cor had a customer question:

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How many C7000 enclosures can be linked using the up link/down link ports in the middle of the OA's?.

Where can I find the official answer? QuickSpecs??

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Input from David:

                I do not know of any documentation on this subject. I was told you can connect up to 7 enclosures with the service port. We normally limit the number to 4, as four is the maximum c7000 enclosure that will fit in a rack and if you enter a 'Rack' name in the GUI, it will take the last name given. The name would need to describe to racks. You could possibly get 7 c3000 enclosures into a single rack, but never connect this to the customer network, as it is a MS APIPA(169.254.x.x) address.

Reply from Lawrence:

I dug up an old email because I need to see your clarification.  What do you mean by your last sentence "but never connect this to the customer network, as it is a MS APIPA(169.254.x.x) address."

I'm not sure I follow...

From Dave:

For want of a better term, the daisy-chain link between OAs and Enclosures is a private network, and can't (shouldn't) be connected to an IP switch.  It's intended for OA-OA communication only.  The logic allows for up to 7 OAs to be connected, but that's for C3000; for practical purposes, it's 4 C7000s, as cross-the rack connections are disallowed.  It would (should) work, but that's the support matrix in practice.

And from Monty:

The c7000 Enclosure Installation Guide covers cabling enclosures together:

We only support linking enclosures in a single rack – see the first note above.

The enclosure link cables are a private network and must not be connected to customer network switches.

The Management port on each OA must be connected to a customer switch to provide management connectivity to each enclosure – whether they are linked or not.

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Any other comments or questions?