Input and Output Ports

Front Panel

The front panel of the Netgate 8300 contains several items of interest for connecting to and managing the device.

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Front view of the Netgate 8300 Security Gateway with key items numbered

The items below are marked with numbers on figure Front view of the Netgate 8300 Security Gateway with key items numbered:

Item

Description

1

Power Supply Unit (PSU) Bays

2

Serial Console (RJ45)

3

2x USB 3.0 Port

4

Reset Button – Used when performing the Factory Reset Procedure.

5

ACPI Power Button - Graceful shutdown, hard power off (Hold 10s), power on

6

Status LEDs

7

10G/1G SFP+ Networking Ports

8

1G SFP Networking Ports

9

2.5G RJ45 Networking Ports

10

1G IPMI Management Port (P11, Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI))

11

Add-on Expansion Card Slots

Power Supply Unit (PSU) Bays (1)

The chassis contains two power supply unit bays located on the far left of the front side. The PSUs are hot swappable and the unit can operate with one or both PSUs connected to line power.

The Netgate 8300 BASE unit ships with one power supply, the Netgate 8300 MAX unit ships with dual power supplies. Additional power supplies are available. A second PSU can be added to the BASE model later by removing the blank panel cover.

Each PSU is 500W with 110V/240V AC input. It contains a standard IEC320-C16 (3-pin) power receptacle which accepts a standard IEC320-C15 power plug.

Serial Console Port (2)

Clients can access the serial console using the RJ45 “Cisco” style console port with a separate cable and USB serial adapter or client hardware port.

Note

The RJ45 Serial Console port is only for use with the Serial Console. It cannot be used for any other purpose.

2x USB 3.0 Ports (3)

USB ports on the device can be used for a variety of purposes.

The primary use for the USB ports is to install or reinstall the operating system on the device. Beyond that, there are numerous USB devices which can expand the base functionality of the hardware, including some supported by add-on packages. For example, UPS/Battery Backups, Cellular modems, GPS units, and storage devices. Though the operating system also supports wired and wireless network devices, these are not ideal and should be avoided.

Reset Button (4)

The Reset Button is used to perform the Factory Reset Procedure.

Pressing and immediately releasing the button has no effect, it does not perform a hardware reset.

See Factory Reset Procedure for details on how to use the button to perform a factory reset.

ACPI Power Button (5)

The large round lighted Power Button behaves the same as a typical ACPI power button.

If the device is powered on and running, pressing the button immediately performs a graceful shutdown and the system enters a standby state.

If the system is in a powered off or standby state, pressing the power button immediately powers on the device and starts the boot process.

If the system is unresponsive, holding in the power button for 10 seconds will forcefully power off the device. Press the power button again to turn it back on.

Status LEDs (6)

The status LEDs, including the backlight on the power button, indicate various status information for the device. The power button LED and the first two LEDs from top to bottom are for OS status, while the bottom LED is for the status of the baseboard management controller (BMC).

See Status LEDs for information on interpreting the meaning of different LED states.

10G/1G SFP+ Networking Ports (7)

This group of four ports labeled P0-P3 are 10G/1G SFP+ Networking Ports.

1G SFP Networking Ports (8)

This group of four ports labeled P4-P7 are 1G SFP Networking Ports.

2.5G RJ45 Networking Ports (9)

This group of three ports labeled P8-P10 are 2.5G RJ45 Networking Ports.

1G IPMI Management Port (10)

The rightmost RJ45 port labeled P11 is the 1G MGMT port dedicated to IPMI. See Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) for details on how to access IPMI.

Note

This dedicated IPMI management port is not visible to or usable by the operating system.

Add-on Expansion Card Slots (11)

These are expansion slots and covers which may house additional add-on cards such as for network interfaces. See Add-On Expansion Card Installation for installation information.

There are two available expansion slots:

  • 1x PCIe 3.0 x8 LP (Low Profile) slot which supports half-length low profile cards.

    This slot has a PCIe-LP connector which is PCIe x16 but only wired for PCIe x8. While the slot supports PCIe x16 half length cards, only 8 lanes function.

  • 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot which supports full-height three-quarter length cards.

    This x16 PCIe slot can supply a maximum of 75W directly.

    Note

    The power draw of standard 25-100 Gbit/s network interface cards will NOT exceed the standard 75W slot rating.

Networking Ports

The sections on the front of the device numbered 7, 8, and 9 in Front view of the Netgate 8300 Security Gateway with key items numbered contain the network interfaces. These ports are labeled P0 through P10 on the device and are grouped by speed.

Label

Assigned Name

Device Name

Type

Speed

P0

P0

ice0

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P1

P1

ice1

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P2

P2

ice2

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P3

P3

ice3

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P4

P4

ice4

SFP

1 Gbps

P5

P5

ice5

SFP

1 Gbps

P6

P6

ice6

SFP

1 Gbps

P7

P7

ice7

SFP

1 Gbps

P8

P8

igc2

RJ45

2.5 Gbps

P9

P9LAN

igc1

RJ45

2.5 Gbps

P10

P10WAN

igc0

RJ45

2.5 Gbps

Note

Network ports in add-on cards may shift the device names in the operating system however the default assignments still attempt match the assigned names with the labels on the device.

Note

The igc(4) network interfaces on this device do not support fixed speed operation. These interfaces emulate a speed/duplex choice by limiting the values offered during autonegotiation to the speed/duplex value selected in the GUI.

When connecting different devices to these interfaces the peer should typically be set to autonegotiate, not to a specific speed or duplex value. The exception to this is if the peer interface has the same limitation, in which case both peers should select the same negotiation speed.

Networking Ports with Add-on Cards

The current add-on network cards offered by Netgate all utilize the ice(4) driver regardless of speed and port type. These cards also all contain two ports each. The add-on cards get probed before the on-board ports, shifting the OS device names of the on-board ports. The default interface assignment code takes this into account when the cards are present on new/fresh installations and after a factory reset.

Warning

Adding an add-on card utilizing the ice(4) driver to an existing installation will cause the port assignments to be incorrect and may result in the WAN, LAN, and other ports being assigned to different physical interfaces.

There are two add-on expansion card slots on the Netgate 8300 device and they can both be populated with network cards, for a total of either two or four additional network ports.

The following table shows the default interface assignments for a Netgate 8300 containing a single two-port add-on card using the ice(4) driver:

Interface assignments with a single two-port ice(4) add-on card

Label

Assigned Name

Device Name

Type

Speed

P0

P0

ice2

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P1

P1

ice3

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P2

P2

ice4

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P3

P3

ice5

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P4

P4

ice6

SFP

1 Gbps

P5

P5

ice7

SFP

1 Gbps

P6

P6

ice8

SFP

1 Gbps

P7

P7

ice9

SFP

1 Gbps

P8

P8

igc2

RJ45

2.5 Gbps

P9

P9LAN

igc1

RJ45

2.5 Gbps

P10

P10WAN

igc0

RJ45

2.5 Gbps

n/a

ADDON0

ice0

Varies

Varies

n/a

ADDON1

ice1

Varies

Varies

The following table shows the default interface assignments for a Netgate 8300 containing two two-port add-on cards using the ice(4) driver:

Interface assignments with two two-port ice(4) add-on cards

Label

Assigned Name

Device Name

Type

Speed

P0

P0

ice4

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P1

P1

ice5

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P2

P2

ice6

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P3

P3

ice7

SFP+

10 Gbps/1 Gbps

P4

P4

ice8

SFP

1 Gbps

P5

P5

ice9

SFP

1 Gbps

P6

P6

ice10

SFP

1 Gbps

P7

P7

ice11

SFP

1 Gbps

P8

P8

igc2

RJ45

2.5 Gbps

P9

P9LAN

igc1

RJ45

2.5 Gbps

P10

P10WAN

igc0

RJ45

2.5 Gbps

n/a

ADDON0

ice0

Varies

Varies

n/a

ADDON1

ice1

Varies

Varies

n/a

ADDON2

ice2

Varies

Varies

n/a

ADDON3

ice3

Varies

Varies

Note

Cards utilizing different drivers may function in the add-on slots, but they will not be automatically assigned as interfaces by default.

Status LEDs

The Netgate 8300 has two groups of status LEDs: Three LEDs (including the power button) for the operating system status, and one LED for the baseboard management controller (BMC) status.

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Close-up view of the Netgate 8300 Security Gateway Status LEDs

The Operating System status LEDs are labeled with shapes which correspond to each LED: Green Circle, Blue Square, and Black Diamond. The BMC status LED is labeled “BMC”.

OS Status LED Patterns

Description

LED Pattern

Standby

Circle pulsing amber

Power Applied

Circle solid amber

BIOS Booting

Circle flashing green

OS Kernel Booting

Circle solid green

OS Boot in Process

Circle flashing green, Square and Diamond flashing blue

Boot Completed/Ready

Circle solid green

Upgrade Available

Square solid amber

Upgrade in Progress

All flashing green

Triggering Reset

Circle, Square, then Diamond solid amber (Factory Reset Procedure)

Reset In Progress

All flashing amber (Factory Reset Procedure)

BMC Status LED Patterns

Description

LED Pattern

BMC Power Applied

BMC solid amber

BMC OS Booting

BMC flashing blue

BMC Boot Completed/Ready

BMC solid blue

Power Supply Unit LED Patterns

Each power supply has a status LED in the upper right corner (not pictured).

Description

LED Pattern

Power Applied + Power On

PSU solid green

Power Applied + Power Off

PSU flashing green

Power Loss to all PSUs

PSU off

Power Loss to one PSU [1]

PSU flashing amber

Warning Event [2]

PSU flashing alternating amber and green

Critical Event [3]

PSU solid amber

PSU LED Notes

Rear Panel

The rear panel of the device has items which are not meant to be accessed as often as the front, as the device is intended to be mounted in a rack.

Netgate 8300 Security Gateway Rear Panel

Rear view of the Netgate 8300 Security Gateway with key items numbered

The items below are marked with numbers on figure Rear view of the Netgate 8300 Security Gateway with key items numbered:

Item

Description

1

Fan exhaust grills

2

Ground connection

3

Power switch