NCS5700 MDB Profile

Hardware MDB Profiles for Layer 2 Services

Table 1. Feature History Table

Feature Name

Release

Description

Hardware MDB Profiles for Layer 2 Services

 Release 7.6.1

You can now configure hardware modular database (MDB) profiles for Layer 2 services, enabling you to achieve higher scales in terms of the number of routers and sessions.

In earlier releases, you could configure hardware MDB profiles for Layer 3 services.

This release adds the following hardware MDB profiles to the hw-module profile mdb command:

  • l2max

  • l2max-se

Hardware MDB profile is used to modify router resources for the specific needs during the router boot up time. You can configure the hardware MDB profile or you can view the default profile. The hardware MDB profiles are applicable for base and scale line cards of fixed and modular Cisco NCS 5700 Series Routers.

Hardware MDB profile feature was introduced in Cisco IOS XR software Release 7.4.1 with l3max and l3max-se configuration profile options. Starting from Cisco IOS XR software Release 7.6.1, it supports l3max , l3max-se , l2max , and l2max-se profiles, and provides high scale layer 2 and layer 3 services. Router with base line cards supports l2max and l3max profiles, and routers with scale line cards support l2max-se and l3max-se profiles.

All features that are supported on l3max or l3max-se hardware profile are also supported on l2max or l2max-se hardware profile and the features that are supported on l2max or l2max-se hardware profile are also supported on l3max or l3max-se hardware profile respectively.

Use the hw-module profile mdb command in the Global Configuration mode to configure the hardware MDB profile options.

Modular routers boots up in the Cisco NCS 5700 Series compatibility mode by default. You can configure the router to boot up in native mode and with the desired MDB profile.

Following tables provides the base and scale profiles of MDB for Cisco NCS 5700 Series Routers and Line Cards.

Table 2. MDB Hardware Module Profile for Fixed System of Cisco NCS 5700 Series Routers

Base Profile

Scale Profile

  • Default profile for Cisco NCS 5700 Series Base Router is l3max .

  • Use hw-module profile mdb l2max command to configure l2max profile.

  • Default profile for Cisco NCS 5700 Series Scale Router is l3max-se .

  • Use hw-module profile mdb l2max-se command to configure l2max-se profile.

Table 3. MDB Hardware Module Profile for Modular System of Cisco NCS 5700 Series Routers and Line Cards

Type

Base Profile

Scale Profile

Description

Configure NCS 5700 MDB profile for the system which has the following line cards:

  • Cisco NCS 5700 Series base line cards alone.

  • Cisco NCS 5700 Series base and Cisco NCS 5700 Series scale line cards.

  • Cisco NCS 5700 Series scale line cards alone.

Note

 

Recommended the configuration of l3max-se and l2max-se only when Cisco NCS 5700 Series scale line cards are present.

Configure MDB scale profile for the system which has Cisco NCS 5700 Series scale line cards.

NCS5700 MDB Profile

  • Ensure that the system has either base or scale Cisco NCS 5700 Series line cards.

  • Command to configure Cisco NCS 5700 Series native mode is hw-module profile npu native-mode-enable .

  • Command to configure l3max MDB profile is hw-module profile mdb l3max .

    System loads with native mode and l3max MDB profile in a single reload.

  • Command to configure l2max MDB profile is hw-module profile mdb l2max .

    System loads with native mode and l2max MDB profile in a single reload.

Note

 

Even if the system has only scale line cards, the default profile is l3max . Other profiles can be configured as specified in the Configuration Example section.

  • Ensure that the system has Cisco NCS 5700 Series scale line cards.

  • Command to configure Cisco NCS 5700 Series native mode is hw-module profile npu native-mode-enable .

  • Command to configure l3max-se MDB profile is hw-module profile mdb l3max-se .

    System loads with native mode and l3max-se MDB profile in a single reload.

  • Command to configure l2max-se MDB profile is hw-module profile mdb l2max-se .

    System loads with native mode and l2max-se MDB profile in a single reload.


Note

  • You must reload the router to activate the newly configured MDB profile.

  • The default profile for a NCS-57C3-MOD-SYS (base) router is l3max . As per the requirements, you can configure it to l2max profile.

  • The default profile for a NCS-57C3-MOD-SE-S (scale) router is l3max-se . As per the requirements, you can configure it to l2max-se profile. Even though base profiles can be configured on SE systems, it is not recommended to use low scale profile.

Restrictions

The following hardware doesn't support hardware MDB profiles.

  • Cisco NCS 5500 Series line cards

  • Cisco NCS 5700 Series line cards operating in compatible mode.

Configure Hardware MDB Profiles for Layer 2 Services

Router supports configuration of hardware MDB profiles for layer 2 services in the following combination of line cards:

  • Cisco NCS 5700 Series base line cards alone.

  • Cisco NCS 5700 Series base and Cisco NCS 5700 Series scale line cards.

  • Cisco NCS 5700 Series scale line cards alone.

Prerequisites:

  • Ensure that the system has either base or scale Cisco NCS 5700 Series line cards.

  • Use hw-module profile npu native-mode-enable command to configure Cisco NCS 5700 Series in native mode.

Configuration Example

This example shows how to configure the hardware MDB profile as l3max in the Cisco NCS 5700 Series base line cards. 

Router# configure
Router(config)# hw-module profile mdb l3max
Router(config)# commit

Verification

Router# show hw-module profile mdb-scale
MDB scale profile: l3max

Configuration Example

This example shows how to configure the hardware MDB profile as l2max in the Cisco NCS 5700 Series base line cards. 

Router# configure
Router(config)# hw-module profile mdb l2max
Router(config)# commit

Verification

Router# show hw-module profile mdb-scale
MDB scale profile: l2max

Configuration Example

This example shows how to configure the hardware MDB profile as l3max-se profile in the Cisco NCS 5700 Series scale line cards. 

Router# configure
Router(config)# hw-module profile mdb l3max-se
Router(config)# commit

Verification

Router# show hw-module profile mdb-scale
MDB scale profile: l3max-se

Configuration Example

This example shows how to configure the hardware MDB profile as l2max-se profile in the Cisco NCS 5700 Series scale line cards. 

Router# configure
Router(config)# hw-module profile mdb l2max-se
Router(config)# commit

Verification

Router# show hw-module profile mdb-scale
MDB scale profile: l2max-se