Brocade FastIron Edge X-Series Hardware Installation Guide
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Part Number: 53-1002499-02
Product Overview
Hardware features
FIGURE 6
AC power supply with ON or OFF switch
DC power supplies
shows a rear view of a FastIron Compact device containing one DC power supply.
FIGURE 7
RPS5DC power supply
About redundant power supplies and power supply failure
A FastIron compact switch with redundant power supplies can maintain full operation when one power supply fails. Power supply failure
can be a failure of the supply itself or the office power grid connected to the power supply.
What happens when a FastIron (non-POE) power supply fails
In a FastIron compact switch (non-POE) with redundant power supplies, power consumption is equally distributed between both power
supplies, within a certain percentage depending on power load or power supply type. However, when one power supply fails, the power
load is carried by the remaining power supply.
What happens when a FastIron POE power supply fails
A FastIron POE compact switch with dual power supplies may not provide redundancy, depending on how much power the POE ports
are consuming. In a POE device with redundant power supplies, power consumption is equally distributed (within a certain percentage
depending on power load or power supply type) between both power supplies. The power supplies provide power to both the system and
POE components. Therefore, a power supply failure can affect the operation of the entire device and not just POE ports.
NOTE
If a switch has 48 ports and two power supplies, and the POE ports are consuming more than 480 watts of power, a single power
supply failure will cause both power supplies to shut down.
If a power supply fails and the system is left with less than the minimum required power, the remaining power supply will go into overload.
Several things can happen with a power supply failure in a FastIron POE switch. The output voltage of the remaining good power supply
will likely drop as it tries unsuccessfully to generate more power than it is capable of. The system will react to a drop in voltage by
increasing the current draw. POE ports will start to shut down due to over-current protection or under-voltage protection, whichever
occurs first. There is no particular order in which the POE ports will shut down, as this will occur in hardware and not in software.
After a power loss, if the system is left with less than the minimum number of power supplies required for normal operation, the system
will be left in an unknown state. At this point, manual recovery is required (i.e. restore power and power cycle the switch).
Pla
s
tic Latch
AC Power
Connector
On/Off
S
witch
AC Cable
Retainer
Handle
