Administrator Guide

Enabling the Port Extender Feature
To use and configure a PE attached to a controlling bridge, such as the C9010, you must first enable the port-extender feature
by entering the feature extended-bridge command. You only need to enter this command once to enable PE support on
a controlling bridge.
Before you enable the PE feature, ensure that LLDP is enabled on the controlling bridge. LLDP is enabled by default. If LLDP is
disabled when you enter the feature extended-bridge command, the following error message is displayed: % Error:
Port-extender feature cannot be enabled when LLDP is disabled.
● Turn on support for PE configuration on a controlling bridge.
CONFIGURATION mode
feature extended-bridge
NOTE: The port-extender command (pe pe-id) and other PE configuration commands are only available after you enable
the extended-bridge feature.
NOTE: You can disable the port extender feature by entering the no feature extended-bridge command. Dell
Networking does not recommend that you use this command because it may result in traffic loss. It brings down the all port
extenders that are online and deletes their configurations. For example:
Dell(conf)# no feature extended-bridge
This command will disable the Extended-Bridge feature which will bring down all the
PEs and remove all the PE configs.
Proceed with Extended-Bridge feature disable? [yes/no]:
Provisioning a Port Extender
You can provision a C1048P with an initial software configuration before or after you install and power on the PE. To provision a
C1048P, start from the C9010 console and enter the following commands. If you enter the commands before you install the
C1048P with a parent C9010, the pre-configured software settings download to the C1048P as soon as you attach it to a C9010
port and power it up.
NOTE:
Although you can provision a C1048P after you install and power it on, Dell Networking recommends pre-configuring
the software provisioning before you install it. Then connect the C1048P to a pre-configured, cascaded C9010 port. In this
way, you can “plug and play” a C1048P with a parent C9010.
1. Turn on support for port-extender configuration on a C9010.
CONFIGURATION mode
Dell(conf)# feature extended-bridge
2. Enter Port-Extender configuration mode to pre-provision a C1048P.
CONFIGURATION mode
Dell(conf)# pe provision pe-id
● pe-id is a PE ID number from 0 to 255. You must enter a pe-id value; there is no default.
3. (Optional) Provision a C1048P for PE stacking.
PORT-EXTENDER CONFIGURATION mode
Dell(conf-pe-0)# stack-unit unit-id type unit-type
● unit-id is a stack-unit ID number from 0 to 7. The default value is 0.
● unit-type is a stack-unit type. The only supported value is C1048P.
4. Provisioning a C1048P automatically creates a LAG (port channel) on the C9010. The C9010 LAG member ports are the
cascade ports configured for the PE with the cascade interface command. The cascade ports must be operationally
up (no shutdown command) and have a default port configuration with no L2 and L3 configuration. The port interfaces
must be the same type. You can configure up to eight C9010 ports in the auto-LAG. The generated auto-LAG number is from
257 to 513.
PORT-EXTENDER CONFIGURATION mode
702
Port Extenders (PEs)