Users Guide
Applying DCB Policies in a Switch Stack
You can apply DCB policies with PFC and ETS congurations to all stacked ports in a switch stack or on a stacked switch.
To apply DCB policies in a switch stack, follow this step.
NOTE: Use only 40G ports as stacking ports when you enable DCB. S4820T does not support DCB when you use 
10GBaseT ports as stacking ports.
• Apply the specied DCB policy on all ports of the switch stack or a single stacked switch.
CONFIGURATION mode
dcb-map {stack-unit all | stack-ports all} dcb-map-name
Congure a DCBx Operation
DCB devices use data center bridging exchange protocol (DCBx) to exchange conguration information with directly connected 
peers using the link layer discovery protocol (LLDP) protocol.
DCBx can detect the misconguration of a peer DCB device, and optionally, congure peer DCB devices with DCB feature settings 
to ensure consistent operation in a data center network.
DCBx is a prerequisite for using DCB features, such as priority-based ow control (PFC) and enhanced trac selection (ETS), to 
exchange link-level congurations in a converged Ethernet environment. DCBx is also deployed in topologies that support lossless 
operation for FCoE or iSCSI trac. In these scenarios, all network devices are DCBx-enabled (DCBx is enabled end-to-end). For 
more information about how these features are implemented and used, refer to:
• Congure Enhanced Transmission Selection
DCBx supports the following versions: CIN, CEE, and IEEE2.5.
Prerequisite: For DCBx, enable LLDP on all DCB devices.
DCBx Operation
DCBx performs the following operations:
• Discovers DCB conguration (such as PFC and ETS) in a peer device.
• Detects DCB mis-conguration in a peer device; that is, when DCB features are not compatibly congured on a peer device and 
the local switch. Mis-conguration detection is feature-specic because some DCB features support asymmetric conguration.
• Recongures a peer device with the DCB conguration from its conguration source if the peer device is willing to accept 
conguration.
• Accepts the DCB conguration from a peer if a DCBx port is in “willing” mode to accept a peer’s DCB settings and then internally 
propagates the received DCB conguration to its peer ports.
DCBx Port Roles
To enable the auto-conguration of DCBx-enabled ports and propagate DCB congurations learned from peer DCBx devices 
internally to other switch ports, use the following DCBx port roles.
Auto-upstream
The port advertises its own conguration to DCBx peers and is willing to receive peer conguration. The 
port also propagates its conguration to other ports on the switch.
The rst auto-upstream that is capable of receiving a peer conguration is elected as the conguration 
source. The elected conguration source then internally propagates the conguration to other auto-
upstream and auto-downstream ports. A port that receives an internally propagated conguration 
overwrites its local conguration with the new parameter values. When an auto-upstream port (besides the 
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Data Center Bridging (DCB)










