6.4. Physical port settings

The detailed operation of each physical port can be controlled by creating ethernet top-level objects, one for each port that you wish to define different behaviour for vs. default behaviour.

To create a new ethernet object, or edit an existing object, select the Interface category from the top-level icons. Under the section headed "Ethernet port settings", you will see the list of existing ethernet objects (if any), and an "Add" link.

In a factory reset configuration, there are no ethernet objects, and all ports assume the following defaults :-

When you first create an ethernet object you will see that none of the attribute checkboxes are ticked, and the defaults described above apply. Ensure that you set the port attribute value correctly to modify the port you intended to.

6.4.1. Disabling auto-negotiation

If you are connecting a port to a link-partner that does not support auto-negotiation (or has it disabled), it is advisable to disable auto-negotiation on the FB6000 port. To do this, tick the checkbox for the autoneg attribute and select false from the drop-down box. You will then need to set port speed and duplex mode manually (see below) to match the link-partner settings.

6.4.2. Setting port speed

If auto-negotiation is enabled, the FB6000 port will normally advertise that it is capable of link-speeds of 10Mb/s, 100Mb/s or 1Gb/s - if you have reason to restrict the possible link-speed to one of these values you can set the speed attribute to 10M, 100M or 1G. This will cause the port to only advertise the specified speed - if the (auto-negotiate capable) link-partner does not support that speed, the link will fail to establish.

If auto-negotiation is disabled, the speed attribute simply sets the port's speed.

6.4.3. Setting duplex mode

If auto-negotiation is enabled, the FB6000 port will normally advertise that it is capable of either half- or full- duplex operation modes - if you have reason to restrict the operation to either of these modes, you can set the duplex attribute to either half or full. This will cause the port to only advertise the specified mode - if the (auto-negotiate capable) link-partner does not support that mode, the link will fail to establish.

If auto-negotiation is disabled, the duplex attribute simply sets the port's duplex mode.

Note

If you do not set the autoneg attribute (checkbox is unticked), and you set both port speed and duplex mode to values other than auto, auto-negotiation will be disabled ; this behaviour is to reduce the potential for duplex mis-match problems that can occur when connecting the FB6000 to some vendors' (notably Cisco) equipment that has auto-negotation disabled by default.

6.4.4. Defining port LED functions

For each port, the green and yellow port LEDs can be set to indicate any of the conditions shown in Table 6.2, by setting the values of the green and/or yellow attributes.

Table 6.2. Port LED functions

ValueIndication
Link/ActivityOn when link up (any speed); blink (off) when Tx or Rx activity (Default for Green LED)
Link1000/ActivityOn when link up at 1Gbit/s; blink (off) when Tx or Rx activity
Link100/ActivityOn when link up at 100Mbit/s; blink (off) when Tx or Rx activity
Link10/ActivityOn when link up at 10Mbit/s; blink (off) when Tx or Rx activity
Link100-1000/ActivityOn when link up at 100Mbit/s or 1Gbit/s; blink (off) when Tx or Rx activity
Link10-1000/ActivityOn when link up at 10Mbit/s or 1Gbit/s; blink (off) when Tx or Rx activity
Link10-100/ActivityOn when link up at 10Mbit/s or 100Mbit/s; blink (off) when Tx or Rx activity
Duplex/CollisionOn when full-duplex; blink when half-duplex and collisions detected
CollisionBlink (on) when collisions detected
TxBlink (on) when Transmit activity (Default for Yellow LED)
RxBlink (on) when Receive activity
OffPermanently off
OnPermanently on
LinkOn when link up
Link1000On when link up at 1Gbit/s
Link100On when link up at 100Mbit/s
Link10On when link up at 10Mbit/s
Link100-1000On when link up at 100Mbit/s or 1Gbit/s
Link10-1000On when link up at 10Mbit/s or 1Gbit/s
Link10-100On when link up at 10Mbit/s or 100Mbit/s
DuplexOn when full-duplex

For example, to configure the port LEDs to show the port link speed via the pattern of the green and yellow LEDs, you could set the green attribute to Link10-1000/Activity, and the yellow attribute to Link100-1000 so that the indication is :-

Table 6.3. Example modified Port LED functions

GreenYellowIndication
OffOffLink down
On/BlinkingOffLink up at 10Mbit/s / Tx or Rx Activity
OffOn/BlinkingLink up at 100Mbit/s / Tx or Rx Activity
On/BlinkingOn/BlinkingLink up at 1Gbit/s / Tx or Rx Activity