Visio by DPTPB: 40GbE to 4x10GbE breakout cable shapes

Feb X 2017 update notes for Visio by DPTPB stencil collection, part 3

40GbE to 4x10GbE breakout cable shapes

With most 40GbE switches there is possibility to split a single 40GbE port to four 10GbE ports by using breakout cable with one QSFP+ connector at one end of the cable and four 10GbE SFP+ connectors at the other end of the cable.

Available both for fiber and direct-attached connectivity. Fiber connection has separate transceivers + a breakout cable with 1x 40G MPO connector / 4x10G LC connectors. DAC cable is a single piece of hardware.

To make drawing easier shapes for both Fiber and DAC are single visio shapes. Since Visio does not have ready-made shapes for cables where there are multiple line-ends in a single cable shape, I had to build one by myself. The shape actually consists of multiple Visio cable shapes grouped together.

With the initial version, I’ve chosen to build this cable with following sub shapes.

• One shape with “40G” cable end, three cable legs
• Four shapes with “10G cable end, each with five cable legs

I might make more variants with different number of legs as I get more experience with drawing 40GbE networks.

Picture: 40GbE to 4x10GbE breakout cable shapes: Fiber, DAC (NetApp), DAC (Cisco), DAC (Brocade), DAC (Nutanix)

Since the shapes are grouped together, moving shapes is slightly different from single-ended cable shapes.

• While you can move individual cable-ends and legs by clicking sub-shape within the group
• However sometimes it is easier to manipulate the shape at group level.
  • by default 10G cable-ends are on top (to align typical top-of-rack switch placement), if you need to make it other way around, it is easier to rotate the whole group by 180 degrees, rather than moving each cable-end / leg separately
  • If you need to move (horizontally) the (vertical) cable leg where 40G and 10G shapes are grouped together, it is easier to resize the shape at group level, rather than moving each component individually
  • Or use Visio’s “Home-Posiotion-Rotate Shapes” menu
    • Flip Horizontal / Vertical
    • This unfortunately also “flips” text orientation into mirror image

Placeholder shapes

I’ve also included separate placeholder shapes. Unlike other placeholder shapes this shape is actually based on Visio cable shape and such behaves like one. Each sub shape has only one cable leg.

The idea behind placeholder shapes is to make drawing process for cables easier. Just reserve ports by using placeholder shapes on both controller and switch side. No need to route cables in between. Might give you less information on cabling, but is whole lot faster to draw.

Picture: 40GbE to 4x10GbE breakout placeholder shapes