Introduction

This document illustrates how to configure Dell EMC™ Networking S4148-ON and S4128-ON switches for use with Dell EMC SC Series storage using Dell EMC best practices. The host servers and storage controllers can be connected to the switches using the QSFP+ and QSFP28 ports with appropriate breakout cables. The switches are interconnected to each other using 40GbE cables or 100GbE cables. Optional steps are provided in section 3 to enable Data Center Bridging (DCB).

Dell EMC recommended switch configuration

The steps in this section show how to configure two Dell EMC Networking S4148-ON/S4128-ON switches in Dell SC series storage environment. This configuration is recommended when the switch is used as a dedicated SAN for iSCSI traffic. Key configuration steps include:

• Hardware configuration
• Check firmware version
• Delete startup configuration
• Configure switch profiles and unified ports
• Configure out-of-band management port
• Configure login credentials
• Configure breakout ports
• Enable switch ports
• Enable iSCSI auto-detection
• Enable Jumbo frames and flow control (optional)
• Configure spanning tree on edge ports
• Save configuration

Configure Data Center Bridging (DCB) (optional)

To enable DCB mode on the switch, use the commands in this section. This is applicable only for environments with DCB-capable SC Series arrays. Key configuration steps include:

• Disable iSCSI
• Disable 802.3x flow control
• Enable DCB
• Create tagged VLANs
• Create QoS policy maps and ETS policies
• Apply policies and VLAN ID to switch edge ports
• Enable iSCSI
• Save configuration

Reverting from DCB to non-DCB configuration (optional)

This section describes how to revert a DCB configured switch to a non-DCB configuration by deleting the current configuration or by unconfiguring DCB and enabling standard flow control.