HPE Cray EX systems can have network switches in many roles: spine switches, leaf switches, aggregation switches, and CDU switches. Newer systems have HPE Aruba switches, while older systems have Dell and Mellanox switches. Switch IP addresses are generated by Cray Site Init (CSI).
The configuration steps are different for these switch vendors. The switch configuration procedures for HPE Aruba will be grouped separately from the switch configuration procedures for other vendors.
It is assumed that the administrator configuring the Management Network has a basic understanding of networking protocols (STP, VLAN, OSPF, LAG/MLAG, BGP, etc.), and knows how to configure network equipment. It is also assumed that they understand and know how to read an SHCD file.
Before configuring/reconfiguring any switches, make sure to get the current running configuration and save that in case the configuration must be reverted.
All switch configuration should be done with a console or out of band connection.
Save the output of the following:
sw# show run
The management network switches should be configured in this order: Spine, Aggregation (if present), CDU (if present), and Leaf. Only systems with liquid-cooled cabinets will have the CDU switches. Only systems with many nodes in air-cooled cabinets will have Aggregation switches.
On a typical system, the Mellanox switches are Spine switches and the Dell switches are used for Aggregation, CDU, and Leaf switches.
After completing this procedure, collect MAC addresses for the management nodes using the PIT node and the management network switches configured in this procedure.