Chapter 3: PowerEdge MX Scalable Fabric Architecture
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Dell EMC PowerEdge MX
Networking Architecture Guide
Scalable Fabric architecture
A Scalable Fabric spans multiple chassis and enables them to behave like a single
chassis from a networking perspective. In contrast, an MCM group enables multiple
chassis to be managed like a single chassis.
A Scalable Fabric consists of two main components - one pair of MX9116n FSEs in the
first two chassis, and extra pairs of MX7116n FEMs in the remaining chassis. Each
MX7116n FEM connects to the MX9116n FSE corresponding to its fabric and slot. This
hardware-enabled architecture applies regardless of whether the switch is running in Full
Switch or SmartFabric mode.
Note
for more information about Full Switch and SmartFabric modes.
Figure 21 shows up to 10 MX7000 chassis in a single Scalable Fabric architecture. The
first two chassis hold a combination of the MX9116n FSE and MX7116n FEM, while
chassis 3 through 10 houses only the MX7116n FEM. All connections in Figure 21 use
QSFP28-DD connections.
Figure 21. Scalable Fabric example using Fabric A
Table 2 shows the recommended IOM slot placement when creating a Scalable Fabric
Architecture.
Overview
