Home > Data Protection > PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance > Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance Configuration Best Practices > Connect network cables
This section describes onsite networking, switch, and cabling requirements and considerations for successfully configuring PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance.
Dell Technologies recommends having five network cables.
Note: Network card types cannot be mixed and matched (optical and copper). Similarly, the network speeds cannot be mixed and matched.
Type of switch recommended (customer network) | NIC type on the appliance | Transceiver | Speed | Cable required |
1 Gb RJ45 | 1GBASE-T Ethernet | Not applicable | 1 Gb | Category 5e or Category 6 |
25 Gb SFP28 | SFP28 | SPF28 duplex LC/ DAC | 25 Gb | LC to LC with SR optical GBICs or copper Twinax DAC cables |
10 Gb SFP+ | SFP+ (optical) | SFP+ duplex LC/ DAC | 10 Gb | LC to LC with SR optical GBICs or copper Twinax DAC cables |
1 Gb or 10 Gb RJ45 | SFP+ (optical) | SFP RJ45 | 1 Gb | UTP with RJ45 (Category 5e or Category 6) |
1 Gb or 10 Gb RJ45 | 10GBASE-T (RJ45) | Not applicable | 1 Gb or 10 Gb (depending on switch) | UTP/STP with RJ45 (Category 6a or Category 7) |
As part of the standard installation, the appliance uses four ports. Two ports are used for load balancing of management traffic, and two ports are used for data traffic/uplinks to the customer’s network switch.
To achieve improved reliability and fault tolerance for the management interface, connect port 1 of LOM PCIe slot 1 and port 1 of PCIe slot 4 to different network switches at the customer site. Similarly, to achieve better performance and reliability for the data traffic, connect port 2 of LOM PCIe slot 1 and port 2 of PCIe slot 4 to different network switches at the customer site:
Note: A copper-based appliance has four physical network cards (NICs) on PCIe slot 4. When setting up the initial connection, always connect ports 1 and 2 (top to bottom) on the appliance.
The following table shows the combinations of NIC ports available on PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance. The number of available ports depends on the customer’s choice of appliance, with a maximum of six optical ports and ten copper ports available for consumption.
LOM (PCIe slot 1) | NIC (PCIe slot 3) | NIC (PCIe slot 4) | Number of NIC ports |
2 x 10/25GbE SFP28 | 2 x 10/25 GbE SFP28 | 2 x 10/25 GbE SFP28 | 6 x 10/25 GbE SFP28 |
2 x 10 GbE SFP+ | 2 x 10 GbE SFP+ | 2 x 10 GbE SFP+ | 6 x 10 GbE SFP+ |
2 x 10 GBT | 4 x 10 GBT | 4 x 10 GBT | 10 x 10 GBT |
Note the following networking considerations for the appliance at the customer site:
Note: The initial configuration of the appliance supports a single VLAN. After initial configuration, VLANs can be added to the appliance through the PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance UI.
Switch port configuration | External network VLAN ID |
Tagged (trunk mode) (recommended) | VLAN ID that corresponds to the customer network |
Untagged (access mode) | 0 |