Calix AXOS - XG801/CE201 Mixed Card Deployments

Introduction

AXOS-R22.1.0 and above provides support for XG801 and CE201 cards to be mixed in an E7-2 chassis with any other card type. The release notes showing full support can be found here.

Backplane mode is configured via the CLI, with a per card-type default:

XG801 and CE201 cards default to using mesh mode
All older card types default to stacking mode (GPON-8r2, NGPON2-4, 10GE-12, etc.)

Capacity considerations:

XG801 and CE201 cards have < 200Gbps (8x25Gbps) backplane capacity using mesh mode
- Shelves with only XG801 or CE201 cards provide full backplane capacity
Prior card types using stacking mode have 80Gbps backplane capacity

Verify / Configure shelf mode

Two commands are available from the AXOS CLI to view the current backplane mode and status of switch-backplane:

show running-config shelf

AXOS-E7-4# show running-config shelf 
shelf 1
 backplane-mode mesh
!

show switch-backplane

Example - No actions required:
AXOS-E7-4# show switch-backplane 
          SHELF  RUNNING  ACTIONS   
LOCATION  MODE   MODE     REQUIRED  
------------------------------------
1/1                                 
1/2       mesh   mesh     none    

Example - Actions required:
E7-2# show switch-backplane 
CARD  backplane-mode  running-mode   status
------------------------------------------------------
1/1   mesh            stacking       reload required
1/2   mesh            stacking       change to stacking

Typically, backplane mode will only need changed when inserting an older card type into an E7-2 system with XG801/CE201 or if changing the card type in one slot. The example below, details how to change the backplane-mode if necessary, from configuration mode:

AXOS-E7-4(config)# shelf 1 backplane-mode 
Possible completions:   
  stacking  Use it if system has card GPON-8r2 or 10GE-12 or  GE-24r2  or NGPON2-4.  
  mesh      Use it if system only has card CE201 and XG801

MOP - Old card running, add XG801/CE201

Pre-requisites:
- System is running with 1 older card type in either slot of E7-2
- User wants to add an XG801 or CE201
- Shelf backplane-mode is set to "stacking" mode by default

Step 1: Insert new card. Card will boot and system posts backplane-mode-mismatch alarm
Step 2: Reboot newly inserted card. Once rebooted, the system will set the correct backplane-mode matching the existing stacking configuration.
Step 3: Confirm mismatch alarm is no longer present in active alarm table and verify no further actions are required using command show switch-backplane.

MOP - New card running, add older generation card

Pre-requisites:
- System is running with 1 XG801 or CE201 in either slot of E7-2
- User wants to add an older card to system (GPON-8r2, 10GE-12, GE-24r2, or NGPON2-4)
- Shelf backplane-mode is set to "mesh" mode by default

Step 1: Insert card into system. Card will boot-up with backplane-mode-mismatch alarm.
Step 2: From the AXOS cli, enter configuration mode and change the shelf backplane-mode to stacking. Exit out of configuration mode and copy run start to save configuration changes.
1. ```
AXOS-E7-4(config)# shelf 1 backplane-mode stacking 
```
2. Following this step, the existing XG801 or CE201 card will now generate a backplane-mode-mismatch alarm.

Step 3: Reboot the newly inserted card only, using the following command:

AXOS-E7-4# reload 1/2   <1/1 or 1/2 depending on where new card was inserted>

Step 4: The new card will reload with the correct backplane setting, but the existing XG801 or CE201 will still have the mismatch alarm present. Reload the XG801 or CE201 only, at this time:
1. ```
AXOS-E7-4# reload 1/1   <1/1 or 1/2 depending on XG801 or CE201 slot>
```

This article was published on Calix Support Community:
https://community.calix.com/s/article/AXOS-E7-2-XG801-CE201-Mixed-Card-Deployments