Support

Onboarding information

Getting your layer-2 interface up and running

What happens after I have placed my order?

If you have placed an order at the NL-ix you will receive an 'order confirmation' mail. This mail contains the following important items:

  • Order number;
  • Product;
  • Demarcation for the patch (if applicable);
  • Interface and cable specifications;
  • Port configuration;
  • Contact details.

After the order confirmation has been send, the NL-ix provisioning team gets to work to deliver your order. When the order has been delivered, for normal products usually within 10 working days after the order confirmation, the provisioning team will send a ‘delivery delivery’ email. This email contains all details you need to setup your connection. When you receive the 'connection delivery' email your connection gets placed in the ‘handholding’ phase. The delivery date is aso the start date of invoicing.

Getting your layer-2 interface up and running

When you have the cross-connect in place and you have received the order delivery e-mail, your NL-ix connection is physically ready to be used. But first there are a number of things that need to be taken care of. By default all of our ports are already enabled before delivery of the service. So when the cross-connect is in place, your port should come up. If not, for fiber-ports check if you are receiving light and check if swapping Rx and Tx will solve the issue. For copper ports, check if you have the correct wiring (straight or cross), and check for correct port settings. If the issue is not resolved, please contact us via provisioning@nl-ix.net and we will troubleshoot the issue. Note that the above does not apply for Managed Waves. For Managed Waves you will receive light on your port, but it will not have link until both ends of the Managed Wave are connected. Here too you can swap Rx and Tx on your fiber-port if you are not receiving light. Further troubleshooting tips are discussed below.

MAC access-list

We have layer-2 access-lists enabled on all of our interfaces for Peering, Transit and VLAN-connections. Only one MAC address is allowed per VLAN/service per port, so any intermediate switches should be made silent. You can add or change the allowed MAC-address in our My NL-ix Portal or send your MAC-address to support@nl-ix.net so that we can add it to the access-list. For tips see the troubleshooting section in the next chapter.

Port settings & VLAN-tagging

Please set the gigabit port configuration to ’auto negotiate’, otherwise the connection might not come up at all or stay down after a reset. For fast ethernet ports, enable ’auto negotiate’ and disable all auto-crossover features.

The connection delivery mail states if you must tag your interface or not, this differs per NL-ix service. Peering VLAN ports (VLAN 7) must always be tagged. VLL’s do not get tagged by default; only when you have multiple services on your NL-ix interface. VPLS’s do get tagged by default. We use industry standard IEEE 802.1q VLAN trunking, please see your vendor manual for information on how to tag your frames.

When your VLL is delivered on a port with multiple services, it will be delivered tagged. When you want to configure your own VLAN’s through a tagged VLL, make sure your equipment supports QinQ

Allowed traffic

The following traffic is not allowed on the NL-ix Peering VLAN 7:

  • ICMP redirects;
  • Spanning Tree;
  • CDP, LLDP;
  • VTP, DTP;
  • OSPF, ISIS, EIGRP (and other IGRP’s);
  • BOOTP/DHCP;
  • PIM;
  • UDLD;
  • L2 Keepalives

The following link-local protocols are exceptions and are allowed:

  • ARP;
  • IPv6 ND

Troubleshooting layer-1

If after connecting the port to port cross connect cabling the lights above the port do not turn green, please try to switch the send and receive connector of your port to port cross connect cabling. If the lights still doesn’t turn green please investigate the following possibilities:

  • Is Rx/Tx connected correctly?
  • Is the port on the other side enabled and connected?
  • Is auto-negotiation configured on the other side?
  • Are there switches or transceivers in-between which are not configured yet?
  • Did you use the GBIC or SFP with the same port type as specified at port details?
  • Is the cable okay? Please have the datacenter check the cable and connectors.
  • Is the port speed configured as ordered?
  • Does the optic match the speed of the interface?

If the port still does not come up, please contact us, and we will check the port configuration on our side.