Port groups on Dell PowerSwitch devices

[tomkivlin]

Dell PowerSwitch (https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-sg/dell-emc-smartfabric-os10/smartfabric-os-user-guide-10-5-0/port-groups-on-s5200f-on-switches?guid=guid-1a9f6680-ab7e-4cfa-9c94-96cf3b436f8c&lang=en-us) and maybe others have a concept of port groups, which are fixed into the physical design of the switch.

Because all interfaces in a port group need to be the same speed, in cases where different speeds are needed on the same switch (e.g. some interfaces SFP+ 10G, some SFP28 25G), planning is needed to ensure only the same speed transceivers & connections are used with interfaces in a given port group.

Therefore it would be useful to be able to view port group : interface mappings to help with the planning of such scenarios, and to validate that this constraint is in the design.

There are sort of a breakout thing, but not using a breakout cable - the "breakout" is within the switch itself.

I looked at modules but I couldn't create the relationship with interfaces. Also tried parent/child interfaces but I couldn't add SFP28 interfaces as a child (came up with the validation error that only virtual interfaces can be child).

I wonder if anyone has a good workaround to manage this scenario?

Or whether a new "port group" component type that maps to interfaces and enforces this constraint is something to request as a new "nice to have" feature? e.g. to:

1. Add port groups as a component of a device / device type
2. Map / assign interfaces to a port group
3. Validate that all interfaces in a given port group are the same speed
4. View a list of port groups on a device, the interfaces contained within, and what those interfaces are connected to

[deeconwastaken]

I am using the same type of switch and unfortunately have not found a reasonable way to model the switch cleanly. The limitations associated with the port groups (all 4 ports can only have the same speed) are also an issue. Are there any ways to implement the port groups as suggested?

[tomkivlin]

All I've done is to create tags based on the port group names, and apply to each interface.

I did have a dream about using the custom validation to make sure the ports in a port-group all had the same configuration, or a webhook to notify on changes to only one port in a port-group but I've not got around to doing that yet.