Overview… the XenaBay chassis

 

XenaBay is 4U rack-mountable Ethernet test appliance chassis.

 

It can contain up to twelve vertically mounted Xena test modules, each of which contains a number of test ports of a particular physical interface type:

 

  • The M1CFP100 module, supporting one 40/100 Gbps pluggable CFP transceiver.
  • The M2CFP40 module, supporting one 40 Gbps pluggable CFP transceiver.
  • The M6SFP+ module, supporting six 10 Gbps pluggable SFP+ transceivers.
  • The M2XFP module supporting two 10 Gbps pluggable XFP transceivers.
  • The M2SFP+ module supporting two 10 Gbps pluggable SFP+ transceivers.
  • The M2CX4 module supporting two 10 Gbps electrical CX4 interfaces.
  • The M6SFP module supporting six 1 Gbps pluggable SFP transceivers.

 

The XenaBay chassis is entirely front-operated except for the power cord which is attached at the back, and the main power switch which is located next to the power connector.

 

Xena xenabay The XenaBay chassis

 

 

On the left side of the front panel is an orange plate attached to a black lid which can be removed to reveal a secondary power switch which turns power on and off with a quick press. Power can also be removed from the external attachment or at the main power switch on the back without any ill consequences. 

 

After turning the chassis on it takes several minutes to start up, the longer the more modules are installed. When it is ready all the LEDs of all the test modules start flashing in a sweeping pattern until the first connection is made to the chassis.

 

Before turning off power you must save any work in progress to a local PC using the XenaManager application. When the chassis is powered on it comes up in a well-defined and fully reset state.

 

 

In the upper-right corner of the front panel are two LED indicators:

 

  • Power LED, showing whether power is attached and switched on.
  • Disk activity LED, showing whether the internal disk is active, primarily on during start-up.

 

In order to install new test modules into the chassis you must first remove the top cover and then follow a series of steps detailed in a separate document.

 

The test module slots

The management interface

Saving and loading

 

Back to start

The XenaBay chassis