Managing Fabrics; Invalid Configurations; Fresh Power-Up Scenario; Monitoring Iom Health - Dell PowerEdge VRTX User Manual

Managing Fabrics

The chassis supports a fabric type, which is Fabric A. Fabric A is used by the single I/O Module, and is always
connected to the on-board Ethernet adapters of the servers.
The chassis has only one I/O module (IOM), where the IOM is a pass-through or switch module. The I/O Module is
classified as group A.
Chassis IOM uses a discrete data path called Fabric, and it is named A. The Fabric A supports only Ethernet. Each server
IO adapter (Mezzanine Card or LOM) can have either two or four ports depending on the capability. The mezzanine card
slots are occupied by PCIe extension cards that are connected to PCIe cards (and not to IO modules). When you deploy
the Ethernet, iSCSI, or FibreChannel networks, span their redundant links across banks one and two for maximum
availability. The discrete IOM is identified with a fabric identifier.
NOTE: In the CMC CLI, the IOM is referred to by the convention, switch.

Invalid Configurations

There are three types of invalid configurations:
• Invalid MC or LOM configuration, where a newly installed fabric type of the server is different from the existing
IOM fabric, that is, a single server's LOM or MC is not supported by its corresponding IOM. In this case, all the
other servers in the chassis are running, but the server with the mismatched MC card cannot be turned on. The
power button on the server flashes Amber to alert a fabric mismatch.
• Invalid IOM-MC configuration, where a newly installed fabric type of the I/O Module, and the resident MC's
fabric types do not match or are incompatible. The mismatched IOM is held in the power-off state. CMC adds an
entry to CMC and hardware logs noting the invalid configuration and specifying the IOM name. CMC causes the
error LED on the offending IOM to blink. If CMC is configured to send alerts, it sends email and/or SNMP alerts
for this event.
• Invalid IOM-IOM configuration, where a newly installed IOM has a different or incompatible fabric type from an
IOM already installed in its group. CMC holds the newly installed IOM in powered-off state, causes the IOM's
error LED to blink, and logs entries in CMC and hardware logs about the mismatch.

Fresh Power-up Scenario

When the chassis is plugged in and turned on, the I/O module has priority over the servers. The IOM is allowed to turn
on before the others. At this time, verification of their fabric types is not performed.
After the IOMs turn on, the servers turn on, and then CMC verifies the servers for fabric consistency.
A pass-through module and switch are allowed in the same group if their fabric is identical. Switches and pass-through
modules can exist in the same group even if they are manufactured by different vendors.

Monitoring IOM Health

For information about monitoring IOM health, see Viewing Information and Health Status of the
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IOM.
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