How to configure Storm Control on Omada Switch via Omada Controller

Contents

Objective

Requirements

Introduction

Configuration

Configuration Method 1: Use Profile Overrides to enable storm control directly on the switch ports

Configuration Method 2: Customize a switch profile to enable storm control by applying the profile to the switch ports

Conclusion

Objective

This article introduces two methods for configuring and using the storm control feature on Omada switches managed via the Omada Controller.

Requirements

• Omada Controller (Software Controller / Hardware Controller / Cloud-Based Controller, v5.9 and above)
• Omada Smart, L2+ and L3 Switch

Introduction

Storm control is mainly used to suppress or block specific messages. When a Layer 2 Ethernet interface receives broadcast, multicast, or unknown unicast messages, the switch will forward them to all other Layer 2 Ethernet interfaces in the same VLAN if it cannot specify the outgoing interface of the messages according to their destination MAC addresses. This could lead to broadcast storms, undermining the switch's forwarding performance.

By configuring traffic suppression and storm control, you can control the traffic of these three types of messages to prevent broadcast storms. Traffic suppression mainly limits traffic by configuring thresholds, while storm control blocks traffic by shutting down ports. Storm control is a port-based feature, so it has to be configured on the specific ports either directly or through a custom profile that can be applied to selected ports.

Two methods are available to configure storm control on the Omada Controller. Method 1 is to directly enable and configure storm control on specific devices and ports using Profile Overrides; Method 2 is to create a switch profile and apply it to the target ports.

You can choose based on the number of ports configured. If you want to enable Storm Control on only a few specific ports or want to do so without modifying the port profile, it is recommended to use Method 1. If there is a need to configure multiple ports in bulk, Method 2 is recommended.

Configuration

Configuration Method 1: Use Profile Overrides to enable storm control directly on the switch ports

Step 1. Log in to the Omada Controller. Go to Devices and click the corresponding switch to open the properties window. Go to the Ports tab and click the Edit icon to configure the target port.

Step 2. Click the checkbox of Profile Overrides for further configuration.

Step 3. Select Storm Control in the Bandwidth Control section. Then select the message types (Broadcast, Multicast, and Unknown Unicast) to be controlled based on your own needs, and specify the Threshold value (unit: kbps). Choose the Action to be taken when the traffic exceeds the threshold on the port. Drop refers to dropping the corresponding type of message that goes beyond the traffic limit after the threshold is exceeded. Shut Down indicates shutting down the port for 3,600 seconds (1 hour) when the threshold is exceeded. Click Apply to implement your configurations.

Note: The Threshold value is required to be a multiple of 64. If the input does not meet the requirement, the system will automatically modify the value to the closest multiple of 64 after the configuration is applied.

The thresholds should be decided based on the actual network. Generally, to enhance usability and reliability, it is recommended to set the threshold as 128 kbps or 256 kbps in the gigabit negotiation rate for broadcast and unknown unicast.

Whether to enable storm control for multicast depends on the actual demands. If there is a demand for multicast, avoid setting storm control for multicast messages. If not, the multicast threshold can be configured as 128 kbps or 256 kbps, or even as low as 64 kbps to minimize flooding in the network when all these types of messages are not required.

Configuration Method 2: Customize a switch profile to enable storm control by applying the profile to the switch ports

Step 1. Log in to the Omada Controller. Go to Settings > Wired Networks > LAN > Switch Profile and click Create New Port Profile.

Step 2. When creating a new port profile, configure the VLAN according to your needs. Select Storming Control in the Bandwidth Control section. Then select the message types (Broadcast, Multicast, and Unknown Unicast) to be controlled based on your own needs, and specify the Threshold value (unit: kbps). Choose the Action to be taken when the traffic exceeds the threshold on the port. Drop refers to dropping the corresponding type of message that goes beyond the traffic limit after the threshold is exceeded. Shut Down indicates shutting down the port for 3,600 seconds (1 hour) when the threshold is exceeded. Click Apply to implement your configurations.

Note: The Threshold value is required to be a multiple of 64. If the input does not meet the requirement, the system will automatically modify the value to the closest multiple of 64 after the configuration is applied.

The thresholds should be decided based on the actual network. Generally, to enhance usability and reliability, it is recommended to set the threshold as 128 kbps or 256 kbps in the gigabit negotiation rate for broadcast and unknown unicast.

Whether to enable storm control for multicast depends on the actual demands. If there is a demand for multicast, avoid setting storm control for multicast messages. If not, the multicast threshold can be configured as 128 kbps or 256 kbps, or even as low as 64 kbps to minimize flooding in the network when all these types of messages are not required.

Step 3. Apply the profile created in Step 2 to the target ports. Go to Devices and click the corresponding switch to open the properties window. Go to the Ports tab and click the Edit icon to configure the target port.

Step 4. Modify the port profile by selecting the customized profile with storm control configuration from the drop-down list. Click Apply.

Conclusion

You have now successfully configured the storm control feature on the Omada switch via the Omada Controller.

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