Configuring a Brocade FastIron switch
Following are some notes on configuring a Brocade FastIron FCX 624S network switch.
Using the CLI §
Connecting §
Connect an RS-232 cable to the serial port on the switch, determine the correct COM port, then connect via Putty on baud 9600.
Help §
The CLI is a little cryptic. Typing help does not give help, other than telling you to use ? “for a list”, e.g.:
fcx>help
Invalid input -> help
Type ? for a list
At seemingly any time you can type ?, even part way through typing a command(!), and it will list all available commands for your current mode. But there does not seem to be any way to list the arguments a given command takes. If you naïvely run a command without the correct arguments, you will not get any hints, just Incomplete command. or Invalid input, e.g.:
fcx#configure
Incomplete command.
fcx#configure ip
Invalid input -> ip
Type ? for a list
Entering configuration mode §
The switch configuration can only be modified in configuration mode. Upon first connecting, you start in unprivileged mode.
To enter configuration mode, run enable to enter privileged mode (i.e. to log in), then configure terminal to enter configuration mode. For example:
fcx>enable
No password has been assigned yet...
fcx#configure terminal
You can tell you are in configuration mode when the prompt begins with <hostname>(config)#
Then you can make configuration changes:
fcx(config)#ip route 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.2.1
Saving the changes §
By default, changes are not written to flash, so will be lost after a reboot. To save the changes, use write memory. For example:
fcx(config)#write memory
Write startup-config done.
fcx(config)#Flash Memory Write (8192 bytes per dot) .
Copy Done.
Printing the configuration §
You can also write the configuration to your terminal, which will print it all out:
fcx(config)#write terminal
Current configuration:
!
ver 08.0.30uT7f3
!
(etc.)
Similarly, you can run show config, which seems to also include where the config is being loaded from:
fcx(config)#show config
!
Startup-config data location is flash memory
!
Startup configuration:
!
ver 08.0.30uT7f3
For a much more verbose output, you can run show tech-support, which prints pages of information to the terminal.
Exiting configuration mode §
Run exit to exit configuration mode and return back to the “logged in” mode (which you first reached after running enable).
CLI help output §
Following is the output of the ? command.
Help from unprivileged mode §
fcx>
enable Enter Privileged mode
ping Ping IP node
show Display system information
stop-traceroute Stop current TraceRoute
traceroute TraceRoute to IP Node
Help from privileged mode §
fcx#
alias Display configured aliases
boot Boot system from bootp/tftp server/flash image
clear Clear table/statistics/keys
clock Set clock
configure Enter configuration mode
copy Copy between flash, tftp, scp, config/code
debug Enable debugging functions (see also 'undebug')
disable Disable system monitoring
dot1x 802.1X
downgrade_to downgrade to a version prior to 8.0
enable Enable system monitoring
erase Erase image/configuration from flash
execute Execute commands in batch
exit Exit Privileged mode
fips FIPS execution commands
inline Inline power (PoE) configuration/operation
jitc JITC execution commands
kill Kill active CLI session
license Delete software licenses
page-display Display data one page at a time
phy PHY related commands
ping Ping IP node
port Port security command
quit Exit to User level
rconsole Use the console of another unit
reload Halt and perform a warm restart
show Display system information
simulate-non-stacking-unit Simulate the absence of the stacking PROM
skip-page-display Enable continuous display
ssh SSH by name or IP address / hostkeys
stack stacking run-time commands
stop-traceroute Stop TraceRoute operation
supportsave support save related
telnet Telnet by name or IP address
temperature temperature sensor commands
terminal display syslog
trace-l2 TraceRoute L2
traceroute TraceRoute to IP node
undebug Disable debugging functions (see also 'debug')
verify Verify object contents
whois WHOIS lookup
write Write running configuration to flash or terminal
Help from configuration mode §
fcx(config)#
aaa Define authentication method list
access-list Define Access Control List (ACL)
aggregated-vlan Support for larger Ethernet frames up to 1536
bytes
alias Configure alias or display configured alias
all-client Restrict all remote management to a host
arp Enter a static IP ARP entry
arp-internal-priority Set packet priority
authentication Configure flexible authentication
banner Define a login banner
batch Define a group of commands
boot Set system boot options
bootp-relay-max-hops Set maximum allowed hop counts for BOOTP
bpdu-flood-enable Flood untagged BPDUs only (MSTP/SSTP)
buffer-profile Set the buffer profile for this application
buffer-sharing-full Remove buffer allocation limits per port
captive-portal Create captive-portal(cp) command mode
cdp Global CDP configuration command
chassis Configure chassis name and polling options
clear Clear table/statistics/keys
clock Set system time and date
console Configure console port
cpu-limit Set limits from each packet processor to CPU
crypto Crypto configuration
crypto-ssl Crypto ssl configuration
default-vlan-id Change Id of default VLAN, default is 1
disable-hw-ip-checksum-check
enable Password, page-mode and other options
end End Configuration level and go to Privileged
level
errdisable Set Error Disable Attributions
exit Exit current level
extern-config-file Extern configuration file
fast Fast spanning tree options
fdp Global FDP configuration subcommands
fips FIPS Commands
flash-timeout config timeout for flash operations
flow-control Enable 802.3x flow control on full duplex port
gig-default Set Gig port default options
gvrp-base-vlan-id Base VLAN-ID used by GVRP (Default: 4093)
gvrp-enable Enable GARP VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP)
gvrp-max-leaveall-timer Maximum Leave-All Timer for GVRP (Default:
300,000 ms)
hash-chain-length HW hash, 4-32, dflt: 4. High value improves
hashing but might affect line rate
hitless-failover Enable hitless failover
hostname Rename this switching router
image-auto-copy Image Mismatch auto-copy
inline Inline power (PoE) configuration
interface Port commands
ip IP settings
ipv4-subnet-response Allow ipv4 subnet broadcast
ipv6 IPv6 settings
jitc JITC Commands
jumbo port jumbo frame support (10200 bytes)
lag Link aggregation group
lag-hash Link aggregation hash options
legacy-inline-power set legacy (capacitance-based) PD detection -
default
link-config Link Configuration
link-keepalive Link Layer Keepalive
lldp Configure Link Layer Discovery Protocol
local-userdb Configure local user database
logging Event logging settings
loop-detection-interval set period to send loop-detection packets,
unit: 0.1 sec
loop-detection-syslog-interval
mac Set up MAC filtering
mac-age-time Set aging period for all MAC interfaces
mac-movement Configure Mac Movement Notifications
mac-notification Enable Mac-notification feature
management-vrf Define Global Management VRF
max-acl-log-num maximum number of ACL log per minute (0 to
4096, default 256)
mirror-port Enable a port to act as mirror-port
mstp Configure MSTP (IEEE 802.1s)
mtu-exceed MTU control action(DF not set)
no Undo/disable commands
ntp Set NTP configuration
optical-monitor Enable optical monitoring with default
alarm/warn interval
password-change Restrict access methods with right to change
password
port UDP and Port Security Configuration
port-statistics-reset-timestamp
privilege Augment default privilege profile
protected-link-group Define a Group of ports as Protected Links
qd-buffer # of buffers for the port
qd-buffer-profile User defined buffer/descriptor profile for QoS
qd-descriptor Queue depth for traffic class(# of descriptors)
qd-share-level configure buffer sharing pool
qos Quality of service commands
qos-tos IPv4 ToS based QoS settings
quit Exit to User level
radius-client Configure RADIUS Dynamic Authorization Client
radius-server Configure RADIUS server
rarp Enter a static IP RARP entry
rate-limit-arp Set limit on received ARP per second
relative-utilization Display port utilization relative to selected
uplinks
reserved-vlan-map Map Default Reserved VLAN ID to some other
value not used
rmon Configure RMON settings
route-map Create route map or enter route-map command mode
route-only Disable Layer 2 switching
router Enable routing protocols
scale-timer Scale timer by factor for documented features
sflow Set sflow params
show Show system information
snmp-client Restrict SNMP access to a certain IP node
snmp-server Set onboard SNMP server properties
spanning-tree Set spanning tree parameters
ssh Restrict ssh access by ACL
stack Configure stack local parameters
stp-group Spanning Tree Group settings
symmetric-flow-control Symmetric Flow Control related parameters
sysmon system monitoring related configuration
system-max Configure system-wide maximum values
tacacs-server Configure TACACS server
tag-profile Configure tag-profile
tag-type Customize value used to identify 802.1Q Tagged
Packets
telnet Set telnet access and timeout
tftp Restrict tftp access
topology-group Configure topology vlan group for L2 protocols
traffic-policy Define Traffic Policy (TP)
unalias Remove an alias
username Create or update user account
vlan VLAN settings
vlan-group VLAN group settings
vrf VRF specific commands
web Restrict web management access to a certain IP
node
web-management Web management options
write Write running configuration to flash or terminal
<cr>
Determining the correct COM port §
A simple approach is to list all COM ports before connecting the cable, then list all COM ports after, and spot the new one.
There are several ways to list all COM ports.
Device Manager §
Go to Start → Device Manager → Ports.
reg command §
In a command prompt run reg query HKLM\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\SERIALCOMM, e.g.:
C:\Users\bob>reg query HKLM\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\SERIALCOMM
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\SERIALCOMM
\Device\Serial1 REG_SZ COM1
\Device\Serial0 REG_SZ COM3
mode command §
In a command prompt run mode, e.g.:
C:\Users\bob>mode
Status for device COM1:
-----------------------
Baud: 1200
Parity: None
Data Bits: 7
Stop Bits: 1
Timeout: OFF
XON/XOFF: OFF
CTS handshaking: OFF
DSR handshaking: OFF
DSR sensitivity: OFF
DTR circuit: ON
RTS circuit: ON
Status for device COM3:
-----------------------
Baud: 1200
Parity: None
Data Bits: 7
Stop Bits: 1
Timeout: OFF
XON/XOFF: OFF
CTS handshaking: OFF
DSR handshaking: OFF
DSR sensitivity: OFF
DTR circuit: ON
RTS circuit: ON
Status for device CON:
----------------------
Lines: 9001
Columns: 120
Keyboard rate: 31
Keyboard delay: 1
Code page: 437