Managing RMAs for Switches
In the event of a switch failure, you must raise an RMA request with the respective hardware vendor.
After the RMA is received, do the following to reconnect the switch back in the fabric:
- Power on the switch
- Connect to the Console window
- Configure the initial switch settings
- Enable SFTP
- Install or upgrade the software to the same version that was available on the failed switch
- Upload or import the previously backed up Configuration file
In Pluribus Unified Cloud Fabric, the configurations can be on per scope basis: Local, Cluster, or Fabric scoped configurations. The scope defines the set of nodes participating in a transaction:
- Local — only the local node (switch) participates in the transaction
- Cluster — only two cluster peer nodes participate in the transaction
- Fabric — all nodes in the same fabric instance participate in the transaction
Based on the switch configurations, use the below processes to restore the configurations on an RMAed switch.
Cluster Re-Peer Process
When the failed switch is part of a cluster, Pluribus recommends the use the cluster re-peer process to restore configuration on the failed switch . Use the fabric-join repeer-to-cluster-node command if one of the member-nodes of the cluster is active and none of the nodes in fabric is offline, except the node that is faulty, for which the configuration needs to be restored. In this case, using the fabric-join repeer-to-cluster-node command is helpful because each cluster node automatically backs-up the other node's configuration. If one node in cluster fails, the above command restores the configuration from the other node. For details, see the Performing the Cluster Re-peer Process in the Configuring High Availability chapter.
However, if both member-nodes of a cluster fail or is being RMAed, or in the cases where multiple fabric member-nodes are offline, then use the switch-config-import command to restore the configuration on the cluster member-node.
Switch Config Export and Import process
In the case of a standalone switch or a non-cluster node (switch) failure, to restore back the configuration, Pluribus recommends the Switch Config Export-Import process. For details, see the Configuring the Export and Import of the Switch Configurations for RMA in the Installing Netvisor ONE and Initial Configuration chapter.
Note: As a best practice, Pluribus recommends to periodically backup the configurations of all fabric nodes (including cluster nodes) and save the configurations on to a external server.