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Document History
TitlePublication numberSummary of changesDate
Fabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guide53-1001349-01New document.July 2009
Fabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guide53-1001349-02Various changes and
corrections.
Fabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guide53-1001755-01New document for Fabric OS
version 6.3.1.
Fabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guide53-1001766-01New document for Fabric OS
version 6.4.0.
Fabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guide53-1002155-01Updated document for
Fabric OS version 7.0.0.
Fabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guide53-1002474-01 Updated document for
Fabric OS version 7.0.1.
Fabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guide53-1002748-01 Updated document for
Fabric OS version 7.1.0.
October 2009
January 2010
March 2010
April 2011
December 2011
December 2012
Fabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guideiii
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ivFabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guide
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Contents
About This Document
How this document is organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
.This document is organized to help you find the information that you want as quickly and easily as
possible. It contains the following components:
• Chapter 1, “FCIP Overview” describes FCIP concepts and features.
• Chapter 2, “FCIP on the 7800 Switch and FX8-24 Blade” describes FCIP tunnel and trunking
configuration options for the 7800 switch and FX8-24 blade.
• Chapter 3, “FCIP Management and Troubleshooting” describes FCIP management and
troubleshooting operations.
Supported hardware and software
The following hardware platforms support FCIP as described in this manual:
• Brocade DCX, DCX 8510-8, DCX-4S, and DCX 8510-4 with one or more FX8-24 blades
• Brocade 7800 switch
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What’s new in this document
Major new additions or deletions in this document support the following:
• General
-Removed all mention of FR4-18i blade since it is not supported as of this release.
• Preface.
-Removed FR4-18i from “Supported hardware and software” on page ix.
• Chapter 1
-Removed FR4-18i from “FCIP platforms and supported features” on page 1
• Chapter 2
-Added note under “7800 switch license options” on page 7 that FCR is not supported on a
7800 switch that has been partitioned for virtual fabrics. Removed requirement that 7800
upgrade license is required to enable Advanced FICON Acceleration License or CUP.
-Under “Creating an FCIP tunnel” on page 42, modified arguments in “Tunnel Options”
table for the following:
• QoS priority percentages
• Committed rate
• Adaptive rate limiting
• Keep-alive timeout
-Added “Firmware downloads” on page 10 under “FX8-24 blade hardware overview” on
page 8 to include this statement: “If FCIP Fibre Channel traffic is active on Fibre Channel
ports, the traffic will be impacted during a firmware download. “
-Under “Limitations using IPsec over FCIP tunnels” on page 30, modified bullet about IPsec
only being supported on VE group 12-21 on FX8-24 blade to say that “Older versions of the
FX8-24 blade do not support IPsec on group 22-31. For these blades, a RASLOG warning
message will display that blade is not at correct version to support IPsec enabled tunnels
on VEs 22-31.”
-Under “Enabling XISL for VE_Ports” on page 39, added note “Although you can create up
to four logical switches on the Brocade 7800, you cannot use these for XISLs because a
base switch cannot be created.”
-Under “Virtual Fabrics” on page 56, added support for virtual switches and fabrics on
7800 switch. Also added considerations and limitations for virtual fabrics for 7800 switch.
-Under “Limitations of port sharing” on page 57“, added paragraph about effect of
disabling default switch on shared GbE interfaces between the default switch and other
logical switches.
-Removed note that there are no addressing restrictions when using switches or blades
operating with Fabric OS v7.0.0 or later since. This was confusing since IP address limits
are defined for GbE, 10 GbE, and cross ports when in 10 Gbps mode.
-Under “Creating a multicircuit tunnel (example)” on page 50, modified paragraph following
figure titled “FCIP tunnel example with six circuits” describing circuits per tunnel
configured in example and requirements for maximum circuits per port on 7800 switch
and FX8-24 blade.
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• Chapter 3
-Removed chapter 3 from previous release, titled “FCIP on the FR4-18i blade.” Chapter 3
now becomes “FCIP Management and Troubleshooting.”
-Removed “portCmd --ipperf” under “WAN performance analysis tools” on page 66 since
this is a tool specific to FR4-18i blade. Also, the command in last bullet in this section was
changed to portShow fcipTunnel --perf.
-Added additional general information about tperf under “The tperf option” on page 66 and
details about establishing a telnet/ssh sessions for the source, sink, to display statistics.
-Removed “The ipperf option,” “ipperf performance statistics,” “Starting an ipperf,” and
“ipperf options” sections since these only apply to the FR4-18i blade.
-Modified “Displaying FCIP tunnel information on FR4-18i blade” for FX8-24 blade and
renamed section to “Displaying FCIP tunnel information (FX8-24 blade)” on page 72.
Modified information on using the portShow fciptunnel command.
-Under “FCIP tunnel issues” on page 73, modified step on using portShow fciptunnel
command to remove FR-14i blade options.
-Under “Displaying FCIP tunnel TCP statistics” on page 71, explained --reset and --lifetime
options for portshow fciptunnel slot/ve_port -tcp command.
-Added “Displaying TCP statistics for circuits” on page 72“and explained --reset and
--lifetime options for portshow fcipcircuit slot/ve_port-tcp command
Document conventions
This section describes text formatting conventions and important notice formats used in this
document.
Text formatting
The narrative-text formatting conventions that are used are as follows:
bold textIdentifies command names
italic textProvides emphasis
code textIdentifies CLI output
For readability, command names in the narrative portions of this guide are presented in mixed
lettercase: for example, switchShow. In actual examples, command lettercase is often all
lowercase. Otherwise, this manual specifically notes those cases in which a command is
case-sensitive.
Identifies the names of user-manipulated GUI elements
Identifies keywords and operands
Identifies text to enter at the GUI or CLI
Identifies variables
Identifies paths and Internet addresses
Identifies document titles
Identifies command syntax examples
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Command syntax conventions
NOTE
ATTENTION
CAUTION
DANGER
Command syntax in this manual follows these conventions:
commandCommands are printed in bold.
--option, optionCommand options are printed in bold.
-argument, argArguments.
[ ]Optional element.
variableVariables are printed in italics. In the help pages, variables are underlined
enclosed in angled brackets < >.
...Repeat the previous element, for example “member[;member...]”
valueFixed values following arguments are printed in plain font. For example,
--show WWN
|Boolean. Elements are exclusive. Example:
\Backslash. Indicates that the line continues through the line break. For
command line input, type the entire line without the backslash.
--show -mode egress | ingress
Notes, cautions, and warnings
The following notices and statements are used in this manual. They are listed below in order of
increasing severity of potential hazards.
A note provides a tip, guidance, or advice, emphasizes important information, or provides a
reference to related information.
An Attention statement indicates potential damage to hardware or data.
or
A Caution statement alerts you to situations that can cause damage to hardware, firmware,
software, or data.
A Danger statement indicates conditions or situations that can be potentially lethal or extremely
hazardous to you. Safety labels are also attached directly to products to warn of these conditions
or situations.
xiiFabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guide
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Key terms
For definitions specific to Brocade and Fibre Channel, see the technical glossaries on MyBrocade.
See “Brocade resources” on page xiii for instructions on accessing MyBrocade.
For definitions of SAN-specific terms, visit the Storage Networking Industry Association online
dictionary at:
http://www.snia.org/education/dictionary
Notice to the reader
This document may contain references to the trademarks of the following corporations. These
trademarks are the properties of their respective companies and corporations.
These references are made for informational purposes only.
CorporationReferenced Trademarks and Products
Microsoft CorporationWindows, Windows NT, Internet Explorer
Additional information
This section lists additional Brocade and industry-specific documentation that you might find
helpful.
Brocade resources
To get up-to-the-minute information, go to http://my.brocade.com and register at no cost for a user
ID and password.
For additional Brocade documentation, visit the Brocade SAN Info Center and click the Resource
Library location:
http://www.brocade.com
Release notes are available on the MyBrocade website and are also bundled with the Fabric OS
firmware.
Other industry resources
• White papers, online demos, and data sheets are available through the Brocade website at
• Best practice guides, white papers, data sheets, and other documentation is available through
the Brocade Partner website.
For additional resource information, visit the Technical Committee T11 website. This website
provides interface standards for high-performance and mass storage applications for Fibre
Channel, storage management, and other applications:
Fabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guidexiii
53-1002748-01
http://www.t11.org
For information about the Fibre Channel industry, visit the Fibre Channel Industry Association
website:
http://www.fibrechannel.org
Getting technical help
Contact your switch support supplier for hardware, firmware, and software support, including
product repairs and part ordering. To expedite your call, have the following information available:
1. General Information
• Switch model
• Switch operating system version
• Error numbers and messages received
• supportSave command output
• Detailed description of the problem, including the switch or fabric behavior immediately
following the problem, and specific questions
• Description of any troubleshooting steps already performed and the results
• Serial console and Telnet session logs
• syslog message logs
2. Switch Serial Number
The switch serial number and corresponding bar code are provided on the serial number label,
as illustrated below:
Switch—On the switch ID pull-out tab located inside the chassis on the port side on the left
• Brocade 5410, M5424, 5450, 5460, 5470, 5480—Serial number label attached to the
module
• DCX 8510-8 and DCX—On the port side of the chassis, on the lower right side and directly
above the cable management comb.
• DCX 8510-4 and DCX-4S—On the nonport side of the chassis, on the lower left side.
3. World Wide Name (WWN)
4. Use the licenseIdShow command to display the switch WWN.
If you cannot use the licenseIdShow command because the switch is inoperable, you can get
the WWN from the same place as the serial number, except for the Brocade DCX and DCX-4S.
For the Brocade DCX and DCX-4S, access the numbers on the WWN cards by removing the
Brocade logo plate at the top of the non-port side of the chassis.
xivFabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guide
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Document feedback
Quality is our first concern at Brocade and we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and
completeness of this document. However, if you find an error or an omission, or you think that a
topic needs further development, we want to hear from you. Forward your feedback to:
documentation@brocade.com
Provide the title and version number of the document and as much detail as possible about your
comment, including the topic heading and page number and your suggestions for improvement.
Fabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guidexv
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There are two Brocade platforms that support FCIP:
• The Brocade 7800 switch
• The Brocade FX8-24 blade (DCX, DCX-4S, DCX 8510-8, and DCX 8510-4 chassis)
FCIP connections are not supported between 7800 switch or FX8-24 blades and previous
generation products such as Brocade 7500 switches or FR4-18i blades.
Note there are differences in platform capabilities. For example, the 7800 switch does not support
10GbE ports.
1
Tab le 1 summarizes FCIP capabilities per platform.
TABLE 1FCIP capabilities by platform
Capabilities 7800 switchFX8-24 blade
FCIP TrunkingYesYes
Adaptive Rate LimitingYesYes
10GbE portsNoYes
FC ports up to 8 GbpsYes (1, 2, 4, 8
Gbps)
CompressionYes
LZ and Deflate
Protocol acceleration
YesYes
Yes (1, 2, 4, 8
Gbps)
Yes
LZ and Deflate
• FCIP Fastwrite
• Open Systems Tape
Pipelining
-OSTP read
-OSTP write
QoS
• Marking DSCPYesYes
• Marking 802.1P - VLAN
tagging
YesYes
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1
FCIP concepts
TABLE 1FCIP capabilities by platform (Continued)
Capabilities 7800 switchFX8-24 blade
• Enforcement 802.1P - VLAN
tagging
FICON extension
Yes Yes
YesYes
• FICON emulation
• IBM z/OS Global Mirror
(formerly eXtended Remote
Copy or XRC) acceleration
• Tape read acceleration
• Tape write acceleration
• Ter adata emulat io n
• Printer emulation
IPsec
• AES encryption algorithm
VEX_PortsYesYes
Support for third-party WAN
optimization hardware
IPv6 addresses for FCIP
2
tunnels
Support for jumbo framesNo
1.Not supported in Fabric OS version v7.0 and later.
2. IPv6 addressing is not supported in conjunction with IPsec in Fabric
OS version v7.0.1 and later.
1
Yes
Tra ns por t m od e
1
No
YesYes
MTU of 1500 is
maximum
Yes
Tra ns por t m od e
No
No
MTU of 1500 is
maximum
FCIP concepts
Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) enables you to use existing IP wide area network (WAN) infrastructure
to connect Fibre Channel SANs. FCIP supports applications such as remote data replication (RDR),
centralized SAN backup, and data migration over very long distances that are impractical or very
costly using native Fibre Channel connections. FCIP tunnels are used to pass Fibre Channel I/O
through an IP network. FCIP tunnels are built on a physical connection between two peer switches
or blades. Fibre Channel frames enter FCIP through virtual E_Ports (VE_Ports or VEX_Ports) and are
encapsulated and passed to Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer connections. The TCP
connections ensure in-order delivery of FC frames and lossless transmission. The Fibre Channel
fabric and all Fibre Channel targets and initiators are unaware of the presence of the IP network.
Figure 1 on page 3 shows the relationship of FC and TCP/IP layers, and the general concept of FCIP
tunneling.
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IP WAN network considerations
To Fibre ChannelTo Fibre Channel
FCIP Tunnel
WAN
FC-IP
FC-2
FC-1
FC-0
FC-2
FC-1
FC-0
FC-IP
TCP
IP
LINK
PHY
TCP
IP
LINK
PHY
1
FIGURE 1FCIP tunnel concept and TCP/IP layers
Each FCIP tunnel is assigned to a single VE_Port and supports a single circuit. The circuit provides
the link for traffic between the source and destination IP addresses on either end of the tunnel.
Since a switch can support multiple VE_Ports, multiple FCIP tunnels can be created.
FCIP Trunking is a method for managing the use of WAN bandwidth and providing redundant paths
over the WAN that can protect against transmission loss due to WAN failure. A trunk is enabled by
creating multiple logical circuits within an FCIP tunnel to carry traffic between multiple source and
destination addresses.
For more information on FCIP tunnel, and trunking concepts for Brocade products, refer to Chapter
2, “FCIP on the 7800 Switch and FX8-24 Blade”.
IP WAN network considerations
Because FCIP uses TCP connections over an existing wide area network, consult with the WAN
carrier and IP network administrator to ensure that the network hardware and software equipment
operating in the data path can properly support the TCP connections. Keep the following
considerations in mind:
• Routers and firewalls that are in the data path must be configured to pass FCIP traffic (TCP
port 3225) and IPsec traffic, if IPsec is used (UDP port 500).
• To enable recovery from a WAN failure or outage, be sure that diverse, redundant network
paths are available across the WAN.
• Be sure the underlying WAN infrastructure is capable of supporting the redundancy and
performance expected in your implementation.
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7800 switch hardware overview
24
13
2
7800 switch hardware overview
Figure 2 shows the FC ports and GbE ports on the 7800 switch. There are 16 FC ports, numbered
0 through 15. The FC ports can operate at 1, 2, 4, or 8 Gbps. There are six GbE ports, numbered 0
through 5. Ports 0 and 1 are available as either RJ-45 ports or small form factor pluggable (SFP)
transceiver ports. Only six total GbE ports can be used. The 6 GbE ports together can provide up to
6 Gbps total bandwidth.
1
2
FC ports 0 through 3
FC ports 4 through 15
3
4
Copper GbE ports 0 and 1 (these ports are
RJ-45 copper alternatives for GbE ports 0
and 1.)
GbE ports 0 through 5
FIGURE 27800 switch FC and GbE ports
The 7800 switch comes in two models:
• The 7800 4/2 base model uses FC ports 0 through 3, and GbE ports 0 and 1. The GbE ports
can be either copper or optical. The RJ-45 copper ports are the default ports. Consider the
following when using these ports:
-Copper ports do not support auto-sense functions.
-With copper media, auto-negotiation must be enabled on the other end of the port
connection.
• The 7800 16/6 uses FC ports 0 through 15, and GbE ports 0 through 5. The 7800 upgrade
license is required. A 7800 upgrade license can be purchased for a 7800 4/2, which enables
12 more Fibre Channel ports for a total of 16, and enables the use of four more optical GbE
ports for a total of six.
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7800 switch license options
NOTE
Some of the capabilities of the Brocade 7800 switch require the following feature licenses, as
described in Table 2 .
• The Advanced FICON Acceleration License enables all FICON emulation features:
-FICON Tape Read Pipelining
-FICON Tape Write Pipelining
-FICON IBM z/OS Global Mirror (formerly eXtended Remote Copy or XRC) Emulation
-FICON Teradata Emulation
-FICON Printer Emulation
• The Integrated Routing (IR) License is required to configure EX_Ports and VEX_Ports to support
Fibre Channel Routing (FCR).
FCR is not supported on a 7800 switch that has been partitioned for virtual fabrics.
TABLE 27800 FCIP feature licenses
Feature PurposeLicense (licenseShow output)
7800 switch license options
2
7800 upgrade Enables full hardware
capabilities, full FCIP tunnel
capabilities, and support of open
systems tape pipelining (OSTP).
read/write and IBM z/OS Global
Mirror, Teradata, and printer
emulation features in FICON
environments.
Integrated routing (IR)Required to configure EX_Ports
and VEX_Ports to support Fibre
Channel Routing (FCR).
Advanced Extension License Required for multiple-circuit
tunnels, FCIP Trunking and
Adaptive Rate Limiting (ARL).
1.Reboot of 7800 is required after activating the 7800 upgrade license.
7800 Upgrade license
1
Advanced FICON Acceleration (FTR_AFA)
license
Integrated Routing license
Advanced Extension (FTR_AE) license
Refer to the chapter on administering licensing in the Brocade Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide for
complete information about licensing requirements.
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FX8-24 blade hardware overview
2
VE_Ports and FCIP tunnels on the 7800 switch
A 7800 switch can support eight VE_Ports. VE_Ports are numbered from 16 through 23. Each FCIP
tunnel is identified with a VE_Port number. Up to eight FCIP tunnels can be created. The 7800
switch supports VEX_Ports to avoid the need to merge fabrics.
Consider the following when using tunnels and VE_Ports:
• On a 7800, the total bandwidth limit is 6 Gbps for VE_Ports.
• As a best practice, Fibre Channel traffic through a VE_Port tunnel should not exceed limits set
by Adaptive Rate Limiting (ARL). For example, if the link is 500 Mbps, the aggregate of the ARL
maximum rates connected to that WAN link can be no more than 500 Mbps. For ingress rates,
there is no limit because the FC flow control (BBC) rate limits the incoming data.
• VE_Ports or VEX_Ports cannot connect to the same domain at the same time as Fibre Channel
E_Ports or EX_Ports.
FCIP Trunking capacity on the 7800 switch
FCIP trunks are built by creating a set of FCIP circuits. FCIP circuits create multiple source and
destination addresses for routing traffic over a WAN, providing load leveling, failover, failback,
in-order delivery, and bandwidth aggregation capabilities over an FCIP tunnel. When the 7800
upgrade license and Advanced Extension License are activated, the FCIP Trunking capacity is as
follows:
• The maximum trunk capacity is 6 Gbps.
• You can define up to eight IP addresses for a GbE port.
• There is a hard limit of four FCIP circuits per GbE port, each requiring a unique IP address.
• Up up to six FCIP circuits can be defined per FCIP tunnel. These circuits can be spread out over
any GbE ports.
• A single FCIP circuit cannot exceed 1 Gbps capacity.
FX8-24 blade hardware overview
Figure 3 on page 9 shows the FC ports, GbE ports, and 10GbE ports on the FX8-24 blade. There
are 12 FC ports, numbered 0 through 11. The FC ports can operate at 1, 2, 4, or 8 Gbps. There are
10 GbE ports, numbered 0 through 9. Ports xge0 and xge1 are 10GbE ports.
The FX8-24 blade allows a maximum of 20 Gbps of bandwidth for tunnel connections, and can
operate in one of three different modes:
• 1 Gbps mode - You can use all ten GbE ports (0 through 9). Both XGE ports are disabled.
• 10 Gbps mode - You can use the xge0 and xge1 ports.
• Dual mode - You can use GbE ports 0 through 9, and port xge0.
The FX8-24 blade can be deployed in either a DCX, DCX-4S, DCX 8510-8, or DCX 8510-4 chassis.
8Fabric OS FCIP Administrator’s Guide
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FX8-24 blade hardware overview
2
1
5
4
3
76
2
1
2
3
10GbE ports (Labeled xge0 and xge1
on the sticker.)
GbE ports 0 through 3
GbE ports 4 through 9
5
6
7
FC ports 0 through 5
Power LED
Status LED
4
FIGURE 3FX8-24 blade FC and GbE ports
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FC ports 6 through 11
FX8-24 blade license options
ATTENTION
2
Removing FX8-24 blades
If you are permanently removing a blade from a DCX, DCX-4S, DCX 8510-8, or DCX 8510-4 chassis
to relocate to another slot in the chassis or you are removing the blade from the chassis entirely, you
must follow these procedures before removing the blade.
• Remove all FCIP configuration settings for the blade. If there are residual configuration
• Delete the IP addresses assigned to the original slot using the portcfg ipif delete command. If
Firmware downloads
If FCIP Fibre Channel traffic is active on Fibre Channel ports, the traffic will be impacted during a
firmware download.
For FCIP, the best practice is to always operate both ends of the tunnel with the same level of Fabric
OS, down to the maintenance release. Fabric OS upgrades should be done on both ends of the
FCIP tunnel concurrently.
settings, they may cause issues with future configurations and upgrades.
this is not done, you must return the FX8-24 blade to the original slot and delete the IP
addresses.
FX8-24 blade license options
Some of the capabilities of the FX8-24 blade require the feature licenses shown in Table 3. Use the
licenseshow command to display license keys and licenses currently installed.
Integrated routing (IR)Required to configure VEX_Ports
Advanced Extension License Required for multiple-circuit
Refer to the administering licensing chapter in the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide for complete
information about licensing requirements.
GbE ports. Slot-based license.
read/write and IBM z/OS Global
Mirror, Teradata, and printer
emulation features in FICON
environments. Slot-based license.
to support Fibre Channel Routing
(FCR). Chassis-based license.
tunnels, FCIP Trunking, Adaptive
Rate Limiting (ARL), and other
FCIP features. Slot-based license.
10 Gigabit FCIP/Fibre Channel
(FTR_10G)license
Advanced FICON Acceleration (FTR_AFA)
license
Integrated Routing license
Advanced Extension (FTR_AE) license
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FX8-24 blade license options
NOTE
2
VE_Ports and FCIP tunnels on the FX8-24 blade
An FX8-24 blade can support 20 VE_Ports, and therefore 20 FCIP tunnels. There are two VE_Port
groups, numbered 12 through 21 and 22 through 31. Each FCIP tunnel is associated with a specific
VE_Port.
VE_Ports do not have to be associated with a particular GbE port on FX8-24 blades and the 7800
switch. VE_Port versus GbE port usage depends on the blade operating mode as follows:
• 1 Gbps mode: VE_Ports 12 through 21 use GbE ports 0 through 9
• 10 Gbps mode: VE_Ports 12 through 21 use xge1; VE_Ports 22 through 31 use xge0
• Dual mode: VE_Ports 12 through 21 use GbE ports 0 through 9; VE_Ports 22 through 31 use
xge0
In 10 Gbps mode, you can also configure VE_Ports 12 through 21 to use port xge0 as a
crossport and VE_Ports 22 through 31 to use port xge1 as a crossport. Refer to “Crossports”
on page 13 for more information.
Considerations for using VE_Ports and FCIP tunnels
Consider the following when using VE_Ports and tunnels:
• Total bandwidth cannot exceed 20 Gbps for VE_Ports.
• It should be made clear if this is referring to Full Duplex (bidirectional traffic) or unidirectional.
It should be “per” VE_Port or “for all” the VE_Ports of a single FCIP engine.
• As a best practice, Fibre Channel traffic through a VE_Port tunnel should not exceed
recommended oversubscription guidelines. General guidelines include 2-to-1 oversubscription
without compression (for example, 1 Gbps over a 500 Mbps tunnel) and 4-to-1
oversubscription with compression.
• VE_Ports or VEX_Ports cannot connect to the same domain at the same time as Fibre Channel
E_Ports or EX_Ports.
FCIP Trunking capacity on the FX8-24 blade
FCIP Trunking provides load leveling, failover, failback, in-order delivery, and bandwidth aggregation
capabilities through the use of multiple FCIP circuits:
• FCIP tunnels using 1 GbE or 10 GbE ports can have up to ten FCIP circuits spread across any
GbE ports.
• You can define up to eight IP addresses (0 through 8 minus the default IPv6 “link-local”
address) for a GbE port. You can define up to 10 IP addresses for a 10GbE port and an
additional 10 addresses on crossports when operating in 10 Gbps mode.
• Up to four FCIP circuits can be configured per 1 GbE port, each requiring a unique IP address.
• Up to ten FCIP circuits can be configured per 10 GbE port, each requiring a unique IP address.
• A single circuit between 1 GbE ports cannot exceed 1 Gbps capacity.
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10 GbE port considerations
Enhanced 10GbE port operation is different than 1 GbE port operation and requires special
considerations when configuring circuits, tunnels, failover operations, and bandwidth.
Multigigabit circuits
For each 10 GbE port, you can configure multigigabit circuits. For example, a single 10 Gbps circuit
or two 5 Gbps circuits can be configured per port. A limit of 10 FCIP circuits can be configured on a
single port. The blade at each end of the tunnel must be running Fabric OS v7.0 and later if the
committed rate for circuits exceeds 1 Gbps. The maximum committed rate for a circuit between 10
GbE ports is 10 Gbps.
There is no difference in latency or throughput performance for single or multigigabit circuits.
Bandwidth allocation and restrictions
You cannot configure more than 10 Gbps of dedicated bandwidth on a 10GbE port. Following are
two examples to clarify these requirements on ports supporting circuits with different metrics. Note
that circuits with higher metrics are treated as standby circuits and are not used until all lower
metric circuits fail. Refer to “FCIP circuit failover capabilities” for a more detailed description.
In the following examples, configuring VE_Port 12 on xge0 is a crossport configuration. For more
information on crossports, refer to “Configuring crossports” on page 13.
• VE_Port 12 has two 10 Gbps circuits. Circuit 0 has a metric of 0 on xge1 and circuit 1 has a
metric 1 on xge0. With this configuration, no other tunnels or circuits would be allowed on this
blade because both XGE ports have 10 Gbps of configured bandwidth.
• VE_Port 12 has two 10 Gbps circuits. Circuit 0 has a metric of 0 on xge1, and circuit 1 has a
metric of 1 on xge0. In this case, the configuration is allowed, but you could not create
additional circuits for either VE port group. For the VE_Port 12-21 port group, VE_Port 12 is
consuming 10 Gbps of back-end port bandwidth, so additional circuits from another tunnel
could not be created. For the VE_Port 22-31 group, the bandwidth would exceed either the
front end port bandwidth or the crossport bandwidth. Again VE_Port 12 circuit 1 is consuming
10 Gbps of crossport bandwidth and 10 Gbps of front end port bandwidth for xge0, so you
cannot create additional circuits for VE_Port 22-31 group.
Note that there can only be a maximum of 10 Gbps defined over the crossport configuration.
Therefore, in the preceding example, since VE_Port 12 is configured with a single 10 Gbps
circuit over xge0 (which would be the crossport for VE_Port 12-21 group), there can be no other
crossport configurations. You could not configure a crossport for VE_Port 22-31 port group
because VE_Port 12 is using all 10 Gbps bandwidth for xge0. This would also restrict you from
configuring any circuits for VE_Ports 22-31 at all. Therefore, consuming the crossport
bandwidth for primary metric 0 circuits is not recommended. Refer to “Crossport bandwidth
allocation” on page 16 for more information.
The terms “XGE port” and “GbE port” may be used interchangeably in this document.
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Back-end bandwidth
Back-end port bandwidth allocation is calculated as follows:
• Back-end bandwidths are always rounded up to the nearest 1 Gbps. For example, 1.5 Gbps
actually consumes 2 Gbps of back-end bandwidth.
• Each VE_Port group is allocated 10 Gbps of back-end bandwidth (10 Gbps for the VE_Port
12-21 group and 10 Gbps for the VE_Port 22-31 group).
• The total back-end port bandwidth allocation is calculated by adding up the consumed
bandwidth for each FCIP tunnel in the VE_Port group.
• The consumed bandwidth for a given FCIP tunnel is calculated by adding the maximum
committed rates (rounded to the nearest 1 Gbps) for all metric 0 circuits, adding up the
maximum committed rates (also rounded to the nearest 1 Gbps) for all metric 1 circuits, then
taking the greater of the two values.
Front-end bandwidth
Front-end port bandwidth allocation is calculated as follows:
• Each 10 GbE port is allocated 10 Gbps of front-end bandwidth. The total front-end port
bandwidth allocation cannot exceed 10 Gbps per 10 GbE port.
• The total front-end port bandwidth allocation is calculated by adding up the consumed
bandwidth for each FCIP tunnel using that XGE port.
• The consumed bandwidth for a given FCIP tunnel is calculated by adding up the maximum
committed rates (not rounded) for all metric 0 circuits using that XGE port, adding up the
maximum rates (not rounded) for all metric 1 circuits using that XGE port, then taking the
greater of the two values.
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Crossports
The FX8-24 blade supports two FCIP engines. Each engine has a “home” or local 10GbE XGE
interface, which is either XGE port 0 (xge0) or XGE port 1 (xge1). When an engine is not using its
home XGE interface, but the alternate or remote interface, an address (ipif), route (iproute) and
circuit for that interface is known as a “crossport.” Crossports are addresses (ipif), routes (iproutes)
that belong to the other interface. The crossport for xge0 is xge1 and for xge1, the crossport is
xge0. To use crossports, both XGE ports must be configured in 10 Gbps mode.
XGE and GbE port may be used interchangeably in this document.
You can configure IP addresses and configure a circuit with metrics for circuit failover on
crossports. You can also configure VE_Ports that are normally available on the a local XGE port to
operate through a crossport. The crossport is the non-local XGE port for a VE_Port group. In other
words, for VE ports 12 through 21, xge1 is the local XGE port and xge0 is the crossport. For VE
ports 22 through 31, xge0 is the local XGE port and xge1 is the crossport.
Configuring crossports
Configure crossport XGE port addresses using the --crossport or -x (shorthand) options for the
portcfg ipif command, as shown in the following example. Note that in this example, IP address
192.168.11.20, created for a FX8-24 blade in slot 8 on port xge0 will be available for circuits on VE