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I recently had to reset and set up a Dell EqualLogic PS4000 SAN array. At the same time, I decided to upgrade the firmware on the array, before placing it back into production. This a rough transcript and comments of that process.

Staying current with firmware or just loading up firmware for testing. New firmware can be copied from a USB FAT32 partition to switch image locations. Copy the firmware, for example, N3000_N2000v6.3.0.6.stk to a newly formatted USB flash drive.

Update: FibreOP is now called Fibe.

If you are searching for a solution to remove the Actiontel Router provided by Bell and replace it with another device.

In my case, a Cisco ASA 5505, for the ASA 5505 is important to have the Security Plus license, as this license is required to use trunking. This should be possible on other brands of network devices, provided you can make the necessary configuration changes.

Warning: Before you begin, be warned that if you need to call in technicians in to troubleshoot, they will unlikely troubleshoot any problem that doesn’t involve their hardware, and you may incur a fee for the call. If you do run into line issues, etc, you can place the Actiontel Router back into your network for the duration of the call.

What you will need:

• Cisco ASA 5505 Firewall with Security Plus License or similar device that can use VLANs in the 30-35 range, some older devices have limits.
• Bell FibreOP connection
• Alcatel-Lucent modem
• MAC Address of Actiontel WAN Port
• Knowledge of Cisco ASA or other device

What are we attempting? To remove the Actiontel Router and have a Cisco ASA 5505 firewall host our leased RFC1483 DHCP IP address on the outside interface.

To accomplish this we will have to configure the Cisco ASA to use specific VLANs and MAC addresses, so it can communicate with the Alcatel-Lucent modem. This task requires networking knowledge and every specific knowledge about Cisco ASA devices or whatever device you have at your disposal. If you don’t understand this article, please do so before making any changes, as you could render your connection inoperable.

This is not meant to be a guide, just a post about how you can replace the Actiontel router with a Cisco ASA device, nothing more.

If you ever have to permanently remove a switch from a Dell switch stack, here are the steps.

A quick show switch stack-ports will display the ports configured for stacking or dedicated stacking ports depend on the switch model.

console#show switch stack-ports

                 Configured  Running
                   Stack      Stack      Link       Link
   Interface       Mode       Mode       Status     Speed (Gb/s)
---------------- ---------- ---------- ------------ ------------
Te1/2/1          Stack      Stack      Link Up      16
Te1/2/2          Stack      Stack      Link Up      16
Te2/2/1          Stack      Stack      Link Up      16
Te2/2/2          Stack      Stack      Link Up      16