Ports

Introduction

Network port enables connectivity between network units. They can be configured in a variety of ways. To successfully connect a pair of ports some abilities must match for the network port pair.

Overview

A network port makes it possible to transmit and receive network packets. They can be of different types such as copper of fiber. Different port types can be configured in different ways such as which speed they should use and if they should use full or half duplex. Not all port types support all configuration options. The default settings aim to automatically bring up ports with the best speed and duplex modes. Thus, as a user you typically do not need to do anything.

Configuration

Configuration of network ports is done in the port context. An example of how to configure port eth1:

example:/#> configure
example:/config/#> port eth1
example:/config/port-eth1/#>

Configuring port speed/duplex settings

There are two settings related to configuration of port speed and duplex mode. Auto-negotiation is enabled by default, and speed-duplex which will advertise all supported modes for the port type.

If specific speed-duplex modes are desired during auto-negotiation it can be controlled via the speed-duplex list setting. This can be used to limit which speed and duplex modes are negotiated.

If auto-negotiation is not desired, it can be turned off via the no auto-negotiate setting. In this case the speed-duplex setting determines which static speed and duplex mode are used.

Syntax

[no] enable

This setting controls if the port is enabled or disabled. If the port is disabled the network link will go down and no network activity is possible.

no
Disable port
[no] auto-negotiate

This setting controls the port’s ability to transmit auto-negotiate frames to a link partner. It is used in combination with speed-duplex when a single speed-duplex setting is given, this setting controls if static mode or autoneg for a single setting is to be transmitted.

no

Disable auto-negotiation

No autonegotiation will be performed

auto
Use auto-negotiation to resolve speed and duplex
[no] speed-duplex AUTO | SPEED_DUPLEX[,SPEED_DUPLEX]

This setting controls the speed and duplex of the port or the advertisment mask if auto-negotiation is used.

auto
Default use all possible speed duplex combinations that is possible for this port
SPEED_DUPLEX
Speed and duplex combination such as 100-Half
[no] priority <0..7>

This setting controls the port priority. If used, this value overrides IP and VLAN priority.

value
Priority field according to 802.1p where 7 means the highest priority.
no
Disable port priority.
[no] priority-mode <tag|ip|port>

This setting configures the port’s priority mode.

no
Reset to this port’s priority value.
tag
Use the VLAN tag priority number.
IP
Use the IP QoS priority field.
tag
Use this port’s priority number.
show
Show the summary for the port
[no] ingress-rate-limit RATE [match <TYPE>[,<TYPE>,...]]

Specify the ports ingress traffic rate limit in kbps. It is possible to use ISO modifiers k/M/G, e.g., 256k or 10M as specifiers for kbps and Mbps. TYPE can be one or more of: all,bc,mc and u-uni. Set values are rounded off to the nearest possible HW setting.

no
Disable the ingress-rate-limit on the port.
RATE
An integer rate value in the range: 64-1000000.
TYPE
Type of traffic. Can be one or more of: all,bc,mc and u-uni.
[no] egress-rate-limit RATE

Specify the ports egress traffic rate limit in kbps. It is possible to use ISO modifiers k/M/G, e.g., 256k or 10M as specifiers for kbps and Mbps. Set values are rounded off to the nearest possible HW setting.

no
Disable the egress-rate-limit on the port.
RATE
An integer rate value in the range: 64-1000000.
[no] mdix-mode <auto|mdi|mdix>

Specify the ports MDI/MDIX crossover settings. By default, the port is able to sense the which pin to use to get link, auto MDI/MDIX (Media Dependent Interface/crossover).

no
Sets the default auto MDI/MDIX mode on the port.
auto
See no above
mdi
Fixed MDI/MDIX setting, use the tx pair for transmit.
mdix
Fixed MDI/MDIX setting, use the tx pair to receive.
[no] default-vid VID

Specify the default VID for the untagged frames on the port.

no
Sets the default-vid to 1 on the port.
VID
default-vid for the port <1-4094>
[no] description <STRING>

Specify the ports description string.

no
Disable the ports description string.
STRING
Free form description of this port.
[no] learning

Specify the port description string. Set learning (switch/hub) mode, default enabled.

no
Set the port to no learning, i.e. hub mode.
[no] gbit-cu-master <auto>

This setting sets the master/follower for the clock sync on Gbit ethernet to manual master mode.

no
This setting sets the master/follower for the clock sync on Gbit ethernet to manual follower mode.
auto
This setting sets the master/follower for the clock sync on Gbit ethernet to automatic mode.
[no] fastlink <1000-t-up>

This settings enables the fastlink functionality if it’s supported on the port. Fastlink minimizes the time for the port to detect link loss on Gbit ports.

no
Disable fastlink.
1000-t-up
Enables fastlink up for Gbit copper ethernet. This may only be set in combination with speed-duplex 1000-full, master/follower manual config and manual mdi/mdix config. This adds 10ms to fastlink down and may thereby not be used in combination with FRNT.

Examples

Per default, a port will be configured with the most sane configuration setting. For an example of non-standard settings and how to configure ports for that an example is outlined below.

Use case

Two network units are connected via an UTP copper cable. Port 7 on Host-1 is a Gigabit port and port 8 on Host-2 is an Fast Ethernet port (100Mbit). Per default a connection is successfully made because auto negotiation is used. In this case we do not want to use auto negotiation and use a fixed speed and duplex instead.

  Host-1                                          Host-2
 .-------.                                       .-------.
 |       |                                       |       |
 |       |                                       |       |
 |   7   |                                       |   8   |
 '---+---'                                       '---+---'
     |                                               |
     +-----------------------------------------------+
Configuration for Host-1
Host-1:/#> configure
Host-1:/config/#> port eth7
Host-1:/config/port-eth7/#> no auto-negotiate
Host-1:/config/port-eth7/#> speed-duplex 100-Full
Host-1:/config/port-eth7/#> leave
Configuration for Host-2
Host-2:/#> configure
Host-2:/config/#> port eth8
Host-2:/config/port-eth8/#> no auto-negotiate
Host-2:/config/port-eth8/#> speed-duplex 100-Full
Host-2:/config/port-eth8/#> leave

Status Overview

In order to verify a ports setting the ‘show’ command can be used. Note that this output can differ for different port types. For example, an SFP fiber port can contain a Digital Diagnostics Monitoring (DDM) section if supported.

Host-1:/#> show port eth7
eth7                                                                          
Link           : Up
Oper. status   : Enabled
Admin status   : Enabled
Description    : eth7
Type           : 1000-T
State          : Forwarding
Alarm          : N/A
VLAN           : U:1
MAC            : 00:07:7c:53:df:87
Autoneg        : Disabled
Speed          : 100M
Duplex         : Full
MDI/MDIX       : Auto
Gbit-cu-master : N/A
Fastlink       : Disabled
Flow Control   : Disabled
Prio mode      : tag
Prio           : 0
Ingress limit  : 0 match all
Egress limit   : 0 kbps
Shielded mode  : Unshielded
PHY power mode : Low power (CLASS B)

This show that the port is a Gigabit copper port (1000-T) and that it’s enabled and has a link. It’s only running at 100Mbit speed and it isn’t using auto-negotiation as we have configured per the example above. This is also indicated by the underline under the speed and duplex entries.