INFINIBAND: How to Check if IB Switch is Spine Switch or Gateway Leaf Switch?

We can check whether a particular switch is Spine Switch or Gateway switch by looking at "ibnetdiscover" command output.

Following are couple of ways to differentiate between Spine Switch and Gateway Switch.

1. Description of Switch.

For Spine switch description will be "SUN DCS 36P QDR"

For Gateway leaf switches description will be "SUN IB QDR GW"

2. Cabling of the Switches.

Spine is not connected directly to the client Nodes, instead it is connected to Spine or other Gateway Switches. This is because spine switches are for connecting different racks over IB fabric. Below is sample ibnetdiscover output. As we can see spine switch is connected to other leaf switches.

vendid=0x2c9
devid=0xbd36
sysimgguid=0xXXXXXXXXbcaa0a3
switchguid=0xXXXXXXXXcaa0a0(XXXXXXXXaa0a0)
Switch  36 "S-0021286ccbcaa0a0"         # "SUN DCS 36P QDR testrack-spine-ib01 XX.XX.XX.37" enhanced port 0 lid 18 lmc 0
[13]    "S-XXXXXb477008c0a0"[19]                # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-01 XX.XX.XX.33" lid 71 4xQDR
[14]    "S-XXXXXb477008c0a0"[20]                # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-01 XX.XX.XX.33" lid 71 4xQDR
[15]    "S-XXXXXb477008c0a0"[21]                # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-01 XX.XX.XX.33" lid 71 4xQDR
[16]    "S-XXXXXb477008c0a0"[22]                # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-01 XX.XX.XX.33" lid 71 4xQDR
[31]    "S-XXXXX06208a8c0a0"[22]                # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-02 XX.XX.XX.34" lid 41 4xQDR
[32]    "S-XXXXX06208a8c0a0"[21]                # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-02 XX.XX.XX.34" lid 41 4xQDR
[33]    "S-XXXXX06208a8c0a0"[20]                # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-02 XX.XX.XX.34" lid 41 4xQDR
[34]    "S-XXXXX06208a8c0a0"[19]                # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-02 XX.XX.XX.34" lid 41 4xQDR

Gateway Leaf switches are connected to client nodes. Below is snippet of ibnetdiscover output.

vendid=0x2c9
devid=0xbd36
sysimgguid=0xXXXXX208a8c0a3
switchguid=0xXXXXX208a8c0a0(XXXXX208a8c0a0)
Switch  36 "S-XXXXX06208a8c0a0"         # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-02 XX.XX.XX.34" enhanced port 0 lid 41 lmc 0
[1]     "H-XXXXX06208a8c040"[2](XXXXX208a8c042)                 # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-02  Bridge 1" lid 40 4xQDR
[2]     "H-XXXXX06208a8c040"[1](XXXXX208a8c041)                 # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-02  Bridge 1" lid 32 4xQDR
[3]     "H-XXXXX06208a8c000"[2](XXXXX208a8c002)                 # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-02  Bridge 0" lid 17 4xQDR
[4]     "H-XXXXX06208a8c000"[1](XXXXX208a8c001)                 # "SUN IB QDR GW switch testrack-gw-leaf-02  Bridge 0" lid 16 4xQDR
[9]     "H-XXXXX0000128bddc"[2](XXXXXXX128bdde)                 # "testrackcn06 EL-C XX.XX.XX.106 HCA-1" lid 54 4xQDR
[10]    "H-XXXXX000014836e0"[2](XXXXXXXX4836e2)                 # "testrackcn05 EL-C XX.XX.XX.105 HCA-1" lid 58 4xQDR
[11]    "H-XXXXX0000128bcdc"[2](XXXXXXXX28bcde)                 # "testrackcn07 EL-C XX.XX.XX.107 HCA-1" lid 60 4xQDR
[12]    "H-XXXXX00001337810"[1](XXXXXXXX337811)                 # "testrackcn10 EL-C XX.XX.XX.110 HCA-1" lid 61 4xQDR
[13]    "H-XXXXX00001437030"[1](XXXXXXXX437031)                 # "testrackcn13 EL-C XX.XX.XX.113 HCA-1" lid 31 4xQDR
[14]    "H-XXXXX00001434570"[1](XXXXXXXX434571)                 # "testrackcn14 EL-C XX.XX.XX.114 HCA-1" lid 34 4xQDR
[15]    "H-XXXXX00001436f70"[1](XXXXXXXX436f71)                 # "testrackcn11 EL-C XX.XX.XX.111 HCA-1" lid 74 4xQDR
[17]    "H-XXXXX00001481fd8"[1](XXXXXXXX481fd9)                 # "testrackcn09 EL-C XX.XX.XX.109 HCA-1" lid 55 4xQDR
[18]    "H-XXXXX0000128bdd4"[2](XXXXXXXX28bdd6)                 # "testrackcn08 EL-C XX.XX.XX.108 HCA-1" lid 73 4xQDR

Products to which Article Applies
Infiniband Switches

Article Author: Tarun Boyella