How to Manage QSFP Ports on a N4000 Series Switch

This article explains how to manage the QSFP ports on a N4000 Series switch, including; setting a 1 x 40Gb (gigabit) QSFP port into 4 x 10Gb QSFP ports, setting the 4 x 10Gb QSFP ports to a 1 x 40Gb QSFP port, verifying the 1 x 40Gb and 4 x 10Gb ports are available and configuring a QSFP port as stack ports.

To break out a 1 x 40Gb QSFP port on a N4000 Series switch into 4 x 10Gb ports, do the following:

1. Configure the QSFP port to be broken out.

                  console>enable

                        console#configure

                  console(config)#interface Fo1/1/1

                  console(config-if-Fo1/1/1)#hardware profile portmode 4x10g

2. Reboot the switch to transition the port into 4x10g mode.

                  This command will not take effect until the switch is rebooted.

                  console(config-if-Fo1/1/1)#do reload

                  Are you sure you want to reload the stack? (y/n)

 3. Verify the 4 x 10Gb ports are available.

                  console>enable  

                  console#show interfaces status

To change the 4 x 10Gb QSFP ports on a N4000 Series switch to a 1 x 40Gb QSFP port, do the following:

1. Configure the port.

                  console>enable

                        console#configure

                  console(config)#interface Fo1/1/1

                  console(config-if-Fo1/1/1)#hardware profile portmode 1x40g

2. Reboot the switch to transition the port into 1x40g mode.

                  This command will not take effect until the switch is rebooted.

                  console(config-if-Fo1/1/1)#do reload

                  Are you sure you want to reload the stack? (y/n)

3. Verify the 1 x 40Gb port is available.

                  console>enable  

                  console#show interfaces status

To configure a QSFP port as a stack-port on a N4000 Series switch, do the following:

1. Configure the desired QSFP port from the default Ethernet mode to stack mode.

                  console>enable

                  console#config

                  console(config)#stack

                        console(config-stack)#stack-port fortygigabitethernet 1/1/1 stack

2. Reboot the switch to transition the port into stack mode.

                  console(config-if-Fo1/1/1)#do reload

                  Are you sure you want to reload the stack? (y/n)

3. Verify the 1 x 40Gb port or 4 x10Gb ports are in stack mode.

                  console>enable  

                  console#show switch stack-ports