The default list of Simware7 7.1.50 linecards (boards for a chassis) does not include 10G ports.

This post covers the steps in case you want to add a custom linecard with 10G interfaces.

• Open the install folder of your HP Network Simulator (HNS) and look in the \model subfolder
• Copy one of the .cfg files or make a new text file, in this example SIM3219.cfg
• Enter the type of interface you want on the board.

Remember that Virtualbox used to have a limit of 8 NICs per VM, which is still effective in this version of Simware. Current Virtualbox does not have this limit anymore (up to 36 now I believe), but Simware does not use this enhanced functionality at this point.

When using a chassis + linecard simware device, the first NIC of the linecard VM is used to communicate with the MPUs. This is why only 7 NICs can be configured in the config file of a linecard:

PHY_ETH_GE 3
PHY_FC_XGE 4

The “PHY_ETH_GE 3” will insert 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports (suppose the board would be slot 2, this would be GE2/0/1, GE2/0/2 and GE2/0/3.

The “PHY_FC_XGE 4” will insert 4 TenGigabit/FC dual personality ports (suppose the board would be slot 2, this would be XG2/0/4 to XG2/0/7, or FC2/0/4 in case you change the mode). These ports are similar to the ports on the recently introduced 5900CP.

• Open the HP Network Simulator and configure the chassis device

For the board, use the new filename of the model you defined in the previous steps.

#*********************************************************************
#device 1 - chassis 1
device_id = 1

#device type is chassis
device_model = SIM3200

#board slot type and memory_size
board = slot 0 : SIM3201 : memory_size 768
# 10G custom slot 
board = slot 2 : SIM3219
# 10G custom slot
board = slot 3 : SIM3219

• Save the project and execute the Run under the Simulate menu. This will generate the VMs in Virtual box

• Now you can start the VMs. The linecards (boards) will be VMs without CLI (obviously), so you could minimize them. The Slot 0 (the first MPU) has a normal CLI.

The image shows the display device output, where you can see the custom board type SIM3219:

• Review the interfaces with display interface brief.

The image shows the first 3 Gigabit ports (on slot 2 and slot3), followed by the TenGigabit interfaces. The output was done on a simware chassis which was already converted to IRF with member ID 1. This is why the numbering starts with 1/…

• Example to convert a 10G interface to a native FC interface

With these commands, a 10G ethernet interface is converted to a native FC interface (on a real 5900CP, this would require a native FC transceiver or the new converged transceiver).

int ten 1/2/0/4
 port-type fc

Sample output:

• And the resulting display interface brief, which will now show the native FC interface 1/2/0/4: