How to Freeze/Unfreeze a Port


Freezing a port enables you to "lock" it so that no one can accidentally reconfigure sensitive attributes such as port authentication or default role settings. For example, if a port is frozen and the administrator later assigns a default role to the entire device, the frozen port will not receive the new default role. To reconfigure a frozen port, you must clear its frozen status, do the configuration, then freeze it again. One application of this feature would be to prevent interswitch link ports from being accidentally reconfigured. You can tell if a port is frozen or not by looking at the port icon (frozen port icons have "icicles" on them) or by checking the Frozen Status on the port's General tab.

The Frozen Port feature is a software feature available in Policy Manager and some other NetSight products.  It does not freeze the ports in the switch firmware itself, but protects the user from making configuration changes to sensitive ports using the software application. Therefore, setting a port to be "frozen" in one NetSight application will not automatically set the port to be "frozen" in another NetSight application.

You can freeze ports as part of the general port configuration process in the Port Configuration Wizard, or you can freeze or clear frozen ports on an individual or selected port basis.

You cannot terminate sessions on frozen ports.

Instructions on:

Freezing/Unfreezing a Port  

To freeze or clear a single port:

The quickest way to freeze a single port or clear it is to select the port in the left panel and use the right mouse button menu Set/Clear Frozen option.
  1. In the left panel, select the Network Elements tab.
  2. Double-click the device on which the port you want to freeze or unfreeze is located.
  3. Right-click the port you want to freeze or unfreeze, and select Set/Clear Frozen. If the port was frozen, it will be unfrozen. If it was unfrozen, it will be frozen.
You can also freeze a port or clear a port's frozen state on the port's General tab.

To freeze or clear multiple ports:

You can freeze multiple ports or clear them by selecting a device or port group in the left panel and holding down the Shift or Control key while selecting the ports in the right panel.
  1. In the left panel, select the Network Elements tab.
  2. Select the device or port group in which the ports you want to freeze or unfreeze are located.
  3. In the right panel Details View tab, hold down the Shift key (to select a sequence of ports) or the Control key (to select several ports not in sequence) and select the ports you want to freeze or unfreeze.
  4. From the menu bar, select Tools > Set Frozen or Tools > Clear Frozen.

Freezing/Unfreezing a Device

You can freeze all the ports on a single device or clear them by selecting the device and using the right mouse button menu Set Frozen or Clear Frozen option.

To freeze or unfreeze an entire device:

  1. In the left panel, select the Network Elements tab.
  2. Right-click the device whose ports you want to freeze or unfreeze.
  3. To freeze all the device's ports, select Set Frozen. To unfreeze all the device's ports, select Clear Frozen.

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