[e-nsp] BlackDiamond 6808

[Jo Rhett]

On Jan 20, 2008, at 7:29 AM, Marcin Kuczera wrote:
> I have a question about construction of BlackDiamond 6808 switch.
>
> Does it have passive or active backplane ?

Passive in theory, but keep in mind that the MSMs use a special  
connector to talk to each other.  In two different chassis we've seen  
that connector part fail, and the MSMs stop communicating.  When this  
happens, both become "active" and the switch effectively segments  
into two.  But because the routing table is the same, it really just  
bit-buckets all the outbound traffic that's on the other MSM's port.

> BD6808 may have 2 MSM modules - so, redundant.
> - but - is the "switch" also redundand (a part of MSM or port  
> modules ?) ?

It's really redundant, except for the failures related to msm<->msm  
communication.

> I know that BD6808 is not the best platform (based on ExtremeWare,  
> not the
> ExtremeOS), however we use it just for L2 - and.. can't afford for  
> brand
> new/expansive devices.

Heh, I have three or so of them fully stocked with G8Xi and 48Ti  
cards I'd be happy to sell you, very cheap.  Two of these had their  
backplanes recently replaced to solve the msm communication failure I  
mentioned above.

-- 
Jo Rhett
senior geek

Silicon Valley Colocation
Support Phone: 408-400-0550