Switch Port Configuration

In most cases, the configuration of a port’s parameters can be done using ip, ifconfig, ifup2, ifdown2, ifquery or ethtool linux commands. The detailed command description and usage examples are provided in this section.

Port Identification

In order to specify the corresponding switch port name in Linux, use the following udev rule. It sets the interface name in the kernel driver, based on kernel port properties, such as switch ID and port ID.
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", ATTR{phys_switch_id}=="00", ATTR{phys_port_name}!="", NAME="sw0p$attr{phys_port_name}"

Port State

The port administrative status can be set using one of the following commands:

ip link set sw1p1 [up | down]
ifconfig sw1p1 [up | down]
ifup2 sw1p1
ifdown2 sw1p1

Port MTU

The port MTU can be set using one of the following commands:
ip link set dev sw1p1 mtu 1500

NOTE The driver supports maximum 3 different MTU settings.

Port MAC Address

The port MAC address can be set using one of the following commands:
ip link set dev sw1p1 address 00:00:00:00:00:02

Port Speed

The port speed can be set using following commands (the speed value is in Mb/s.):
ethtool -s sw1p1 speed 1000

NOTE: The speed can only be set if auto-negotiation is disabled. If you pass speed parameter when auto-neogtiation is enabled, it is ignored.

Port Duplex Mode

The port duplex mode can be set using following commands: ethtool -s sw1p1 duplex [half|full]

NOTE: duplex can only be set if auto-neogtiation is disabled. If you pass duplex parameter when auto-neogtiation is enabled, it is ignored.

Switch Port Limitations

• Only the last significant byte of MAC address can be configured on the port. The rest part of MAC address is a common base for all ports.
• ethtool -r command to restart the auto negotiation is supported only for 1G low speed copper ports.
• Port media type should be configured before speed settin.g
• The ethtool –m command to read SFP module info is not supported.
• The ethtool –p command to test LEDs on port is not supported.
• FEC is supported only on SFP ports since 10G speed and higher.
• Only odd numbers are supported for MTU configuration on port. This is in keeping with the requirement that MRU is changed together with MTU.