Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric — Configure Switches
Configuring the switches and ports
The Blueprint Designer in Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric provides the basic switch and port configuration for the fabric. During the fabric design phase or after fabric deployment, you can use Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric to perform general configuration tasks such as enabling host ports for your network devices, creating routed ports for external connections, or adding sub-interfaces.
Modify a switch configuration
Step 1 | Select Fabrics, then click the fabric that contains the switch. |
Step 2 | If the fabric is not in edit mode, click Switch to edit mode. |
Step 3 | In the Topology area, click the switch position that you want to configure, then click the switch name. ![]() |
Step 4 | In the Configure area, select the switch property you want to configure. ![]() |
Step 5 | Configure the selected switch property. The configuration procedures are described in these links. |
Configure the management interface
You typically configure the management interface prior to onboarding, but you may configure or modify the management interface after onboarding.
Follow these steps to configure the management interface.
Step 1 | Select Fabrics, then click the fabric that contains the switch. |
Step 2 | If the fabric is not in the edit mode, click Switch to edit mode. |
Step 3 | In the Topology area, click the switch position that you want to configure, then click the switch name. ![]() |
Step 4 | In the Configure area, click Management port. ![]() |
Step 5 | Click Edit to open the Edit management ports dialog box. ![]() |
Step 6 | In the Edit management ports dialog box, select how the management port obtains IP addresses. At least one IPv4 or IPv6 address is required for cloud connectivity.
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Step 7 | (Optional) Enter Proxy address, Proxy username, and Proxy password. |
Step 8 | Click Update. |
Configure fabric connections using auto-cabling
You can use the auto-cabling feature to configure the fabric connections quickly and easily. This feature simplifies the process and in most cases creates a desirable cabling plan.
Follow these steps to configure fabric connections using auto-cabling.
Auto-cabling uses only QSFP-DD ports. If you want to use an SFP56 port (10G, 25G, or 50G) for a switch-to-switch connection, you must configure the connections manually. For the procedure, see Configure fabric connections manually.
For your switch fabric ports, if you want to use a non-default speed such as 40G, 100G, or 200G instead of the default of 400G, you must select the appropriate speed when you configure the ports. For the procedure, see Configuring ports.
Step 1 | Select Fabrics, then click the fabric for which you want to use auto-cabling. |
Step 2 | If the fabric is not in the edit mode, click Switch to edit mode. |
Step 3 | In the Physical topology area, click Fabric connects. The Fabric connects table lists all configured connections, if any. |
Step 4 | Click Auto Cabling. The Auto Cabling dialog box opens.
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Configure fabric connections manually
You can use the auto-cabling feature to configure the fabric connections quickly and easily. However, you can also configure the fabric connections manually for precise control over the device connections.
Follow these steps to configure fabric connections manually.
For your switch fabric ports, if you want to use a non-default speed, you must select the appropriate speed when you configure the ports. For example, for QSFP-DD ports, you can use 40G, 100G, or 200G instead of the default of 400G. For the procedure, see Configuring ports.
Step 1 | Select Fabrics, then click the fabric that contains the switches that you want to connect. |
Step 2 | If the fabric is not in the edit mode, click Switch to edit mode. |
Step 3 | In the Topology area, click the switch position that you want to configure, then click the switch name. ![]() |
Step 4 | In the Configure area, click Fabric connects. The Fabric connects table lists all configured connections. |
Step 5 | Click + Add port connection. A dialog box opens for configuring a new connection.
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Dynamic port breakout
Dynamic port breakout enables you to break down a high-speed, channelized port on a network element into multiple low-speed ports, each going to multiple network elements, while fully utilizing the high-speed port's bandwidth. Breakout is suitable for very short links and offer a cost effective way to connect within racks and across adjacent racks. As an example, you can split a 400 Gigabit (Gb) port into four independent and logical 100Gb ports.
You configure breakout on the down links (also known as the access-facing ports or downlink ports) and fabric links of the switches. Fabric links form the connections between the leaf switches and spine switches.
For how to configure breakout, see Configuring ports.
Configuring ports
Configure a port at the switch level
You can configure various properties of a switch's port, such as the role and speed, and if it is broken out. The port role specifies the type of connection provided by a port.
Follow these steps to configure a port at the switch level.
Step 1 | Select Fabrics, then click the fabric that contains the switch. |
Step 2 | If the fabric is not in the edit mode, click Switch to edit mode. |
Step 3 | In the Topology area, click the switch position that you want to configure, then click the switch name. ![]() |
Step 4 | In the Configure area, click Port configurations. The Port configurations table lists all ports of the switch. ![]() |
Step 5 | (Optional) If you want to enable or disable breakout for any of the ports, click Manage breakouts.
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Step 6 | In the Port configurations table, under the Action column, click the edit button ( A dialog box opens for configuring the port. ![]()
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Step 7 | Repeat the previous step for every port on this switch that will connect to another leaf or spine switch or host in the fabric. |
Step 8 | Repeat this procedure for every leaf or spine switch in the fabric. |
Configure multiple ports at the switch level
You can configure various properties of multiple ports of a switch simultaneously, such as the role and speed. The port role specifies the type of connection provided by a port.
Some properties choices expose additional properties that you cannot set using this procedure; you can set the additional properties only by configuring the ports individually. The descriptions in the steps specify which properties have this limitation.
Follow these steps to configure multiple ports at the switch level.
Step 1 | Select Fabrics, then click the fabric that contains the switch. |
Step 2 | If the fabric is not in the edit mode, click Switch to edit mode. |
Step 3 | In the Topology area, click the switch position that you want to configure, then click the switch name. ![]() |
Step 4 | In the Configure area, click Port configurations, then select the ports that you want to configure by putting a check in the box next to each port ID. ![]() |
Step 5 | If you want to change the role of the ports, click Edit port roles.
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Step 6 | If you want to change the port properties, click Edit port properties. The properties include the port speed and pluggable.
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Step 7 | If you want to change the admininistrative state, click Edit port admin state.
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Configure a port at the fabric level
You can configure any port of any switch in a fabric by going to the Physical topology area of that fabric. This page makes it easy to configure the ports of different switches.
Follow these steps to configure a port at the fabric level.
Step 1 | Select Fabrics, then click the fabric that contains the switch for which you want to configure its ports. |
Step 2 | If the fabric is not in the edit mode, click Switch to edit mode. |
Step 3 | In the Physical topology area, click Port configurations. The Port configurations table lists all ports of all switches in the fabric. |
Step 4 | Above the Port configurations table, you can use the various fields and drop-down lists to filter the table.
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Step 5 | In the Action column, click the edit button (
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Configure multiple ports at the fabric level
You can configure any port of any switch in a fabric by going to the Physical topology area of that fabric. This page makes it easy to configure the ports of multiple switches simultaneously.
Some properties choices expose additional properties that you cannot set using this procedure; you can set the additional properties only by configuring the ports individually. The descriptions in the steps specify which properties have this limitation.
Follow these steps to configure multiple ports at the fabric level.
Step 1 | Select Fabrics, then click the fabric that contains the switches for which you want to configure their ports. |
Step 2 | If the fabric is not in the edit mode, click Switch to edit mode. |
Step 3 | In the Physical topology area, click Port configurations. The Port configurations table lists all ports of all switches in the fabric. |
Step 4 | Above the Port configurations table, you can use the various fields and drop-down lists to filter the table.
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Step 5 | Select the ports that you want to configure by putting a check in the box next to each port ID. The ports can belong to different switches. |
Step 6 | If you want to change the role of the ports, click Edit port roles.
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Step 7 | If you want to change the port properties, click Edit port properties. The properties include the port speed and pluggable.
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Step 8 | If you want to change the admininistrative state, click Edit port admin state.
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Guidelines for configuring ports
With the Cisco HF6100-60L4D switch, when you configure the speed of one of the SFP56 ports in a port group, the speed of the other port gets configured with the same speed.
View the ports of a switch
After you configure the ports of a switch, you can look at the status of all ports. At a glance, you can see which ports are up, not connected, disabled, or configured for breakout. You can also see additional details about the switch.
Follow these steps to view the ports of a switch.
Step 1 | Select Fabrics, then click the fabric that contains the switch. |
Step 2 | If the fabric is not in the edit mode, click Switch to edit mode. |
Step 3 | In the Topology area, click the switch position whose ports you want to view, then click the switch name. ![]() |
Step 4 | In the Ports area, select Port status or Face plate. ![]()
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Step 5 | In the Port status view, to see details about a specific port, select that port. This can be a port in the enlarged view of a broken out port. The Details drawer opens, which contains more information about the port. You can perform various actions, such as disabling the port, changing the admin state, or editing the description. |
View Inventory
In Inventory, you can view the all the devices that are claimed and bound to a fabric for an organization and also view the all the claimed devices that are not bound to a fabric.
Step 1 | Choose .In the Device Inventory page you can view the number of claimed devices that are not bound to the fabric, the number of claimed devices that are bound to the fabric, and number of nodes as defined in the fabric blueprint. ![]() |
Step 2 | Click Claimed device not bound to view the list of the claimed devices not bound to a fabric. For each device you can view information such as hostname, fabric name, role, cloud connectivity status, claim date, serial number, PID, and switch ID.
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Step 3 | Click Device bound to fabric to view the list of the claimed devices bound to a fabric. For each device you can view information such as hostname, fabric name, role, cloud connectivity status, claim date, serial number, PID, and switch ID.
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Step 4 | Click Fabric nodes with no device bound to view the list of the nodes such as spine or leaf switches as defined in the fabric blueprint. For each node you can view information such as hostname, fabric name, role, and PID. |
Step 5 | Click Claim devices to claim one or more devices. See Claim a device. |
Finish and commit your changes
Your changes are not applied to the fabric until you review, commit, and push them.
For a more detailed description of this procedure, see "Workflow for making changes to the fabric" in Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric—Getting Started.
Follow these steps to finish and commit your changes.
Step 1 | Click Review configuration ![]() |
Step 2 | Verify your changes in the review list. |
Step 3 | Click Comment and push. |
Step 4 | In the Comment before pushing configuration dialog box, enter the reason for the change. |
Step 5 | Click Push configuration. |