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VELOS Components¶
CX410 Chassis¶
The CX410 is a 4 Rack Unit (RU) chassis, that has eight ¼ width slots that can be populated by the BX110 or BX520 (requires F5OS-C 1.8.1) line cards, as well as 2 larger slots that are populated by the SX410 system controllers. The system controllers proxy console, and out-of-band Ethernet management for all the blades. There is an AC power version of the chassis, as well as a DC power version. The DC power version of VELOS is Network Equipment Building Systems (NEBS) compliant. NEBS standards are utilized all over the world for a host of commercial, utility, and defense applications. The standards are designed to ensure that the equipment continues to work at extremes of temperature, or after an extreme event, like an earthquake or a severe thunderstorm.
Note
You cannot mix BX110 and BX520 blades in the same CX410 chassis currently.
CX1610 Chassis¶
The CX1610 is a 16 Rack Unit (RU) chassis, that has thirty-two ¼ width slots that can be populated by new BX520 line cards (BX110 blades are not supported in the CX1610), as well as 2 larger slots that are populated by the SX1610 system controllers. The system controllers proxy console, and out-of-band Ethernet management for all the blades. There is an AC power version of the chassis, as well as a DC power version. The DC power version of VELOS is Network Equipment Building Systems (NEBS) compliant. NEBS standards are utilized all over the world for a host of commercial, utility, and defense applications. The standards are designed to ensure that the equipment continues to work at extremes of temperature, or after an extreme event, like an earthquake or a severe thunderstorm.
Rack Mounting the CX410 Chassis¶
VELOS ships with a 4-post quick-install rail (SHP-0270-00). The rack is adjustable from 28” to 40”.
There is also an optional 2 post shelf-based rack mount kit that can be purchased (SHP-0272-00), with the caveat that the chassis will protrude out the front of the rack.
More detailed instructions and images of each type of rackmount option is covered in the CX410 Platform Guide.
Power Supplies & Controllers¶
CX410 Power Supplies and Controllers¶
The VELOS CX410 comes standard with 2 power supplies. Additional power supplies can be added to provide N+1, or N+N redundancy. VELOS supports AC power, and up to 4 power supplies (each with their own input) can be installed within the chassis. A DC power version of the chassis is also available. Power supplies are removable from the front of the unit, by removing the LCD panel assembly.
In the back of the chassis are 4 separate AC power inputs, 2 redundant PSU controllers, as well as a removable fan tray.
The PSU controllers are accessible in the upper left-hand corner of the back of the system.
A DC power version of the CX410 chassis is also available and runs the same system controllers and line cards.
For detailed power consumption and configuration please reference the Platform Guide: VELOS CX Series
CX1610 Power Supplies and Controllers¶
The VELOS CX1610 comes standard with 6 power supplies. Additional power supplies can be added to provide N+1, or N+N redundancy. VELOS supports AC power, and up to 12 power supplies (each with their own input) can be installed within the chassis. A DC power version of the chassis is also available. Power supplies are removable from the front of the unit, either at the top by removing the LCD panel assembly, or on the bottom of the chassis.
In the back of the chassis are 12 separate AC power inputs, and 4 redundant PSU controllers which are removable. Six of the power supplies (3) and 2 of the power supply controllers (1,2) are at the top of the chassis, and the remaining six power supplies (8) and two more power supply controllers (6,7) are at the bottom of the chassis.
The first two PSU controllers are accessible in the upper left-hand corner of the back of the system and the remaining two are accessible in the lower left-hand corner of the back of the system.
A DC power version of the CX1610 chassis is also available and runs the same system controllers and line cards.
For detailed power consumption and configuration please reference the Platform Guide: VELOS CX Series
Fan Trays & Cooling¶
CX410 Fan Trays and Cooling¶
The VELOS chassis implements front-to-back cooling/airflow, and it is recommended that customers install such that VELOS does not intake hot airflow from other devices. The fan tray is removable if it needs to be replaced but should not be removed for long periods of time, as overheating may occur.
CX1610 Fan Trays and Cooling¶
The VELOS chassis implements front-to-back cooling/airflow, and it is recommended that customers install such that VELOS does not intake hot airflow from other devices. The CX1610 chassis has four removable fan trays. The fan trays are removable if one needs to be replaced but should not be removed for long periods of time, as overheating may occur.
LCD Panel¶
CX410 LCD Panel¶
In the initial release of VELOS most of the LCD functionality has not been enabled yet. The LCD will go through self-tests, and display the product name and F5 logo, but no diagnostics or configuration is supported at this time. The LCD assembly can be removed to gain access to the power supplies if needed.
CX1610 LCD Panel¶
In the initial release of VELOS most of the LCD functionality has not been enabled yet. The LCD will go through self-tests, and display the product name and F5 logo, but no diagnostics or configuration is supported at this time. The LCD assembly can be removed to gain access to the power supplies if needed.
System Controllers¶
SX410 System Controllers¶
Each CX410 chassis ships with two SX410 system controllers already installed. They are not optional and are not ordered separately. The system controllers perform two main functions:
- They provide the active backplane connectivity, and layer2 switching to all line cards (BX110 and BX520 cannot be mixed in the same chassis currently)
- They operate in an active/active manner from a layer2 switching perspective
- They host the Kubernetes control plane functions
- They operate in an active/standby manner for these functions
It is recommended that a system always operate with two system controllers for redundancy. If one should fail, the remaining system controller can take over, however backplane capacity will drop from 1.6Tbps to 800Gbps. The Kubernetes control plane will run on the active system controller and will fail over to the standby if the active should fail.
All out-of-band management, and console access for the chassis is proxied through the system controllers. There is no need to cable these connections to the blades themselves, as was the case with the VIPRION c2400 chassis and blades. In the diagram below each blade had to have its own wired out-of-band Ethernet connection, as well as a console connection typically connected to an external terminal server. This required a lot of extra layer2 switch ports, as well as terminal server connections.
The BX110 and BX520 blades have no console or out-of-band ethernet ports, it’s now centralized on the system controllers.
Each SX410 system controller has a single 10Gb out-of-band management port, a console port, and a USB port as well as status LEDs.
Looking at the left-hand side of the diagram below, you’ll notice the system controllers provide console and out-of-band management access to the chassis. This is proxied through the controller to the individual line cards. The system controllers have a built-in terminal server function, that allows direct connection to a blade if required. Each system controller also acts as a centralized switch fabric, interconnecting all blades in the system. Note, there are 100Gb backplane connections (primary and secondary) to each slot in the system, but only the primary connection is used. The BX520 blades utilize both 100Gb connections to each controller from each of the two slots the blade occupies (total 400Gb).
SX1610 System Controllers¶
Each CX1610 chassis ships with two SX1610 system controllers already installed. They are not optional and are not ordered separately. The system controllers perform two main functions:
- They provide the active backplane connectivity, and layer2 switching to the BX520 line cards (The BX110 blade is not supported on the CX1610 chassis)
- They operate in an active/active manner from a layer2 switching perspective
- They host the Kubernetes control plane functions
- They operate in an active/standby manner for these functions
It is recommended that a system always operate with two system controllers for redundancy. If one should fail, the remaining system controller can take over, however backplane capacity will drop from 6.4Tbps to 3.2Tbps in the CX1610 chassis. The Kubernetes control plane will run on the active system controller and will fail over to the standby if the active should fail.
All out-of-band management, and console access for the chassis is proxied through the system controllers. There is no need to cable these connections to the blades themselves, as was the case with the VIPRION c4800 chassis and blades. In the diagram below each blade had to have its own wired out-of-band Ethernet connection, as well as a console connection typically connected to an external terminal server. This required a lot of extra layer2 switch ports, as well as terminal server connections.
The BX110 and BX520 blades have no console or out-of-band ethernet ports, it’s now centralized on the system controllers.
Each SX1610 system controller has a single 10Gb out-of-band management port, a console port, and a USB port as well as status LEDs.
Looking at the left-hand side of the diagram below, you’ll notice the system controllers provide console and out-of-band management access to the chassis. This is proxied through the controller to the individual line cards. The system controllers have a built-in terminal server function, that allows direct connection to a blade if required. Each system controller also acts as a centralized switch fabric, interconnecting all blades in the system. Note, there is a single 100Gb backplane connection to each slot in the system from each controller. The BX520 blades utilize both 100Gb connections to each controller from each of the two slots the blade occupies (total 400Gb).
BX110 Blade¶
The BX110 blade is a next generation data plane/line card. It has 2 high speed (QSFP+/QSFP28) ports, that can be configured for 40Gb, or 100Gb when bundled. If unbundled, then each port can be 4 x 25Gb, or 4 x 10Gb with the proper breakout cable and optics installed. There are no direct console or out-of-band connections to the blade, as those functions are now proxied by the system controllers.
The BX110 has 14 physical CPU cores, which are hyperthreaded into 28 vCPUs. Six of the vCPUs are reserved for the F5OS-C platform layer (3 for the F5OS Datamover and 3 for F5OS Dedicated), leaving 22 vCPUs available for multitenancy. Each blade comes with a 1TB SSD drive and is populated with 128GB of RAM (double the current generation VIPRION B2250). Each BX110 has two Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA’s), which provide hardware offload for certain functions and workloads. The Application Traffic Service Engine (ATSE) is the “front panel FPGA”, which does initial classifications and offload, while the VELOS Queuing FPGA (VQF), is the “back panel FPGA” that implements queuing and CoS through the chassis backplane. The CPU complex provides hardware offload for SSL/TLS and compression, like previous generations of BIG-IP (such as iSeries and VIPRION B4450) performed these operations, but with a newer generation of processor.
The SSD is removable but not field replaceable. This allows customers who require that disks are destroyed before returning a blade for RMA have easy access to the SSD.
BX520 Blade¶
The BX520 blade is a next generation data plane/line card. It has 2 high speed (QSFP-DD) ports. The first port can be configured for either 100Gb or 4 x 100Gb (with the appropriate break out cable). The second port can be configured for either 4 x 100Gb (with the appropriate break out cable) or 400Gb. There are no direct console or out-of-band connections to the blade, as those functions are now proxied by the system controllers.
Note
100Gb breakout cable support is targeted to be generally available in F5OS-C 1.8.1.
The BX520 has 56 physical cores, which are hyperthreaded into 112 vCPUs. Sixteen of the vCPUs are reserved for the F5OS-C platform layer (8 for the F5OS Datamover and 8 for F5OS Dedicated), leaving 96 vCPUs available for multitenancy. Each blade comes with a 4TB SSD drive and is populated with 512GB of RAM. Each BX520 has three Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA’s), which provide hardware offload for certain functions and workloads. The Traffic Aggregation Module (TAM) FPGA handles all front panel connections. The Application Traffic Service Engine (ATSE x 2) handles initial classifications and offload, while the VELOS Queuing FPGA (VQF), is the “back panel FPGA” that implements queuing and CoS through the chassis backplane. The CPU complex provides hardware offload for SSL/TLS and compression, like previous generations of BIG-IP (such as iSeries and VIPRION B4450) performed these operations, but with a newer generation of processor.
Below is an illustration of how the BX520 blade connects to the two system controllers.
The SSD is removable but not field replaceable. This allows customers who require that disks are destroyed before returning a blade for RMA have easy access to the SSD.
