User manual

SwitchX®-2 12 Port InfiniBand Switch System Hardware User Manual Rev 1.0

Mellanox Technologies

1.4 Internally Managed vs. Externally Managed

All internally managed switches can support IB fabric of up to 648 nodes. Internally managed

switches need an initial configuration before they will start working.

The externally (unmanaged) managed switch system is designed as a low cost switch and as a

result does not have any field replaceable units. This switch has no Ethernet or console inter

faces. The only management interface is an I2C interface on the connector side.

Externally Managed (Unmanaged) switches are plug and play out of the box. Updating the firm-

ware stack for the externally managed switches is done in-band only. You will need to confirm

that your switch has the latest firmware. For externally managed switches, confirm that the latest

FW revision is installed on this device. Use the CLI to get the currently installed revision and

then go to Mellanox.com to check the revision of the latest version.

The following table shows which switches come with a management CPU and which do not.

Externally managed switches can only run in an IB fabric. Externally managed

switches cannot run Ethernet protocol.

Table 5 - Switch Management

Family

Externally /

Internally

Managed

Management Connections

SX6005 Externally

Managed



(Unmanaged)

Plug and Play

All firmware updates should be done in-band using Mellanox firmware man-

agement tools. I2C port access using MTUSB-1 device is required for firm-

ware updates if in-band burning is not possible.

SX6012 Internally

Managed

RS232 cable DB9 to RJ-45 included in the box to connect to host PC for ini-

tial configuration of the switch. After initial configuration, the switch can be

managed through the Ethernet port using a remote connection.