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How POD is enabled on Brocade switches?

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Applies to

Brocade switches     

Answer

  • Brocade switches offer a Ports on Demand (POD) model for licensing and port enabling.
  • However, when adding POD license, POD-disabled ports are not automatically enabled.
Brocade POD details

This allows for licensing flexibility by only buying licenses for ports used. Additional licensed ports can be added as business requirements increase.

Rules for Configuring, Enabling and Disabling POD ports:

  • Ports can be configured, but not enabled, before being licensed.
  • The license installation procedure checks the license database.
  • License installation is done by the licenseadd command or the Web Tools Switch Admin License Admin Tab.
  • Ports must be explicitly enabled after a POD license is installed and disabled after a POD license is removed.

Methods to explicitly enable/disable ports after adding/removing POD license:

  1. portenable/portdisable command or Web Tools Switch Admin Port Setting tab
  2. switchenable/switchdisable command or Web Tools Switch Admin Switch tab
  3. Reboot switch.

When the active ports have exhausted the current POD license pool, additional ports will not be assigned a license. In such cases, manually move licenses from unused ports by releasing the POD assignment to a newly used port and reserve it.

Step 1: Releasing a port from a POD set
  1. Identify the unused/offline port currently holding the license.   

                switch:admin> licenseport --show
        24 ports are available in this switch
        Ports on Demand license is installed
            Dynamic POD method is in use

        24 port assignments are provisioned for use in this switch:
                8 port assignments are provisioned by the base switch allowance
                16 port assignments are provisioned by the Ports on Demand license
        13 ports are assigned to the base switch allowance or installed licenses:
                8 ports are assigned to the Ports on Demand base switch allowance
                5 ports are assigned to the Ports on Demand license
        ports assigned to the base switch allowance:
            0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9
        ports assigned to the Ports on Demand license:
            7*, 8, 10, 11, 13         >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Port 7 with * is an offline port holding license
        ports that are not assigned:
            12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
            23
        0 license reservations are still available for use by unassigned ports
        1 license assignment is held by an offline port (indicated by *)

  1. Release the license from port 7.

Note: Before you can re-assign a license, disable and ensure the port is offline and release the license

switch:admin> portdisable <port_number>
switch:admin> licenseport --release <port_number>
switch:admin> licenseport --release <range_of_port_numbers>

Step 2: Reserving a port license
  • Reserving a license for a port assigns a POD license to that port whether the port is online or offline.

switch:admin> licenseport --reserve <port_number>

switch:admin> licenseport --reserve <range_of_port_numbers>

  • Run the portShow command to ensure the port is licensed.
  • Enable the port by running the portEnable <portnumber> command.

Additional Information

  • If the active ports have exhausted the current POD license pool, then you would not be able to assign a license to the additional ports.

switch:admin> licenseport --show
   24 ports are available in this switch--> These are the total number of ports on the switch ( Total 24 ports)


   Ports on Demand license is installed
     Dynamic POD method is in use --> This tells us that Dynamic POD is installed on the switch.

16 port assignments are provisioned for use in this switch:->   Total 16 ports ( licenses- including POD and base switch allowance )

8 port assignments are provisioned by the base switch allowance -> Out of 16, 8 port assignments are available for base switch allowance

8 port assignments are provisioned by the Ports on Demand license--> Rest of 8 port assignments are available for POD

 16 ports are assigned to the base switch allowance or installed licenses:
         8 ports are assigned to the Ports on Demand base switch allowance
         8 ports are assigned to the Ports on Demand license
  ports assigned to the base switch allowance:
     0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 19
  ports assigned to the Ports on Demand license:
     3, 6, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18
  ports that are not assigned:
     7, 10, 11, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23
  0 license reservations are still available for use by unassigned ports

  • Customer has to engage his accounts rep to assist him in procuring additional 8 PORT POD to enable the remaining ports.

Refer to Brocade licensing user guide

 

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