Policy Group to Shutdown a Port

[weylin.piegorsch]

I know I can disable a port under Fabric > Inventory.  Is there a way I can do it under Fabric > Access Policies, through a Interface Policy Group?

I'm using SFP-10G-T-X.  Per the release notes, I can't have anything at all (with some exceptions that I'll never use) in adjacent ports.  I want to indicate to future engineers looking to plan port utilization that a port is unavailable for use - and also I want to prevent accidental use.  Going through Fabric > Inventory would work, but it's a bit obtuse since generally noone goes there to determine if a port is / isn't available to use.

Is there a way to build a Interface Policy Group that would shutdown a port?  I can then give it a policy name to indicate as such, which everyone will see when planning and deploying.

[Robert Burns · Accepted solution]

The only option I would recommend is creating a Dummy/Do-Not-Use policy group, and applying it all the interfaces you want to keep unused.  This way, if anyone attempted to configure one of those interfaces, they would see the interface was in-use (requiring an overwrite of config) which would be a clear enough indicator hopefully to warn users. 

Robert

Step1: Adding "Do-Not-Use" Policy Group to selected interfaces


View of Interfaces after applying policy:

If they attempt to configure one of these ports, they would see it's already in use (advising config to be overwritten):

[weylin.piegorsch]

Thanks @Robert Burns.  Is there anything that should be in the policy group?  Minimally no AAEP, is there anything else I can do to enforce the port to be unusable?

In some cases - in my particular case, adjacent ports to an SFP-10G-T-X - even having link come up is an issue, which can happen when the operations team installs the SFP/patch cord on the wrong port.  I wasn't sure if there's, I dunno, maybe a Link Level Policy or something that would disable the port within the Policy Group.

[Robert Burns · Accepted solution]

Weylin,

As soon as the SFP-10G-T-X port is configured, adjacent ports go into a reduced power mode, which can only support lower power DACs.  If someone inadvertingly insert & connect a 10G SFP into an adjacent port, the link wouldn't come up (would go into hw-disabled state).  It would not have any impact to the configured port.   

Robert

[weylin.piegorsch]

Thanks @Robert Burns, that's a perfect answer!