VDX6740 Configuration

[nev_finch]

I am hoping someone will be willing to share their experiences with Brocade VDX6740 switches.

For the last couple of months we have been battling performance issues with our new Cisco UCS / Nimble CS300 / Brocade ICX6610 set-up. After a lot of back and forth between Cisco, Brocade and VMware we have determined that the ICX6610 switches are having issues with the Cisco UCS servers. To resolve the issue we are removing the ICX6610 switches and replacing them with VDX6740 switches.

The problem is, to get to this point, I have had the network off line more times than I would like to count. After multiple firmware updates, buffer changes, driver updates and configuration tweaks things are reasonably stable for the end user. So before I make the change I really want to make sure the VDX units are optimally configured.

Attached to this post is the latest configuration I have put together. I really couldn’t find a lot on the VDX6740 and Nimble so most of this is based on information Dell supply for VDX configuration.

I am now at the point that the only two things I am not confident with, based on the ICX configurations, are;

Disabling multicast storm control and;

Enabling gratuitous ARP.

The VDX units are completely different beasts to the ICX units though, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[cschreiner93]

Hello, Also implementing VDX 6740's. Any insights/recommmendations based on your implementation you could share?

thanks

[dshort46 · Accepted solution]

Nev & Chris

I have several customers using different variations of the Brocade VDX6470 with excellent results.

You didn't include a complete model number for the switch you're using, but the 2 settings you're concerned with don't appear to be accessible on the VDX line? I've checked our documentation, as well as Brocade's and I can only assume these features are now automated by the switch.

For example, our networking best practices do suggest disabling Unicast Storm Control on older switches that support this feature. However, I can't find any mention of these settings in Brocade's technical documentation?

Even so, as I mentioned before, I have a handful of customers (one even makes use of the QSFP+ ports on the VDX 6740 for connecting the Nimble 10Gb iSCSI ports on a pair of Brocade VDX 6740's, which reduces the number of ports utilized considerably.

So, I'd have no hesitation in recommending the Brocade VDX6740's for use with Nimble. They're easy to setup and blistering fast.

(Lastly, always check your firmware ;-)