88 PARAGON II USER G UIDETiered ConfigurationsStandard Tiering ConfigurationsCommon Guidelines for Tiering Configuration• Only Paragon I with hardware version HW3 (running Paragon II code) or Paragon II MainSwitching Unit (M unit) can serve as Base Units (the first tier).• The version of Base Unit(s), both hardware and firmware, must always be later than or atleast equal to the version of other tier devices.• A maximum of three (3) tiers, including the Base Unit, is permitted.• Devices that are not Paragon II matrix switches but come with two or more channel ports,such as Raritan MasterConsole, CompuSwitch, Z-CIM, or P2ZCIM, are treated as tierdevices. These devices cannot act as base devices in a Paragon II system and can beconnected only to a Base Unit or to a second-tier Paragon II unit.Note: The easiest way to determine if the hardware version of your Paragon I unit is HW3 is tocheck the number of its stacking ports on the rear side. If there is only one stacking port, thehardware version is HW3.Guidelines for Single Base ConfigurationA single base configuration could be two-tier or three-tier configuration. It is composed of oneParagon UMT “M” Base Unit and second-tier or even third-tier device(s).Initialization− After all devices have been connected, power on the devices from UPPER tier to lowertier. For example, power on the second-tier device(s) first and then the first-tier device ina two-tier configuration.− After initialization, each tiered device has an updated database.Guidelines for changing connections of tiered devices:Example A: Relocating a higher-tier device (refer to dotted line)1. Disconnect some or all of the user ports on the third-tier unit (UMT-3A) that connect to thechannel ports of the second-tier unit (UMT-2A) and re-connect the user ports to the channelports of another second-tier unit (UMT-2B).2. Recycle the power of all impacted devices. This is recommended to build a clean database forthe UMTs. Sequence of recycling power is from the HIGHEST tier (third tier) to the BaseUnit. In our example: UMT-3A → UMT-2A→ UMT-2B → UMT-Base.3. The operation is the same for devices that are not UMT matrix switches.
