Brocade Communications Systems AM866A - StorageWorks 8/8 Base SAN Switch, 8/24, 8/40, 8/8, 300 Administrator's Manual

53-1001345-01
28 July 2009

Access Gateway

Administrator’s Guide

Supporting Fabric OS 6.3.0

Copyright © 2007-2009 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Brocade, the B-wing symbol, BigIron, DCX, Fabric OS, FastIron, IronPoint, IronShield, IronView, IronWare, JetCore, NetIron,
SecureIron, ServerIron, StorageX, and TurboIron are registered trademarks, and DCFM, Extraordinary Networks, and SAN Health
are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. All other brands,
products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their
respective owners.

Notice: This document is for informational purposes only and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerning
any equipment, equipment feature, or service offered or to be offered by Brocade. Brocade reserves the right to make changes to
this document at any time, without notice, and assumes no responsibility for its use. This informational document describes
features that may not be currently available. Contact a Brocade sales office for information on feature and product availability.
Export of technical data contained in this document may require an export license from the United States government.

The authors and Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. shall have no liability or responsibility to any person or entity with
respect to any loss, cost, liability, or damages arising from the information contained in this book or the computer programs that
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The product described by this document may contain “open source” software covered by the GNU General Public License or other
open source license agreements. To find out which open source software is included in Brocade products, view the licensing
terms applicable to the open source software, and obtain a copy of the programming source code, please visit
http://www.brocade.com/support/oscd.

Brocade Communications Systems, Incorporated

Corporate and Latin American Headquarters
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.
1745 Technology Drive
San Jose, CA 95110
Tel: [phone]
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E-mail: [e-mail]

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Document History

The following table lists all versions of the Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide.

Document Title Publication Number Summary of Changes Publication Date

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 53-1000430-01 First version January 2007

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 53-1000633-01 Added support for the 200E June 2007

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 53-1000605-01 Added support for new policies

and changes to N_Port
mappings.

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 53-1000605-02 Added support for new

platforms:
300 and the 4424.
Added support for new features:

- Masterless Trunking

- Direct Target Connectivity

- Advance Device Security policy

- 16- bit routing

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 53-1000605-03 Added support for:

- Cascading Access Gateway.

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 53-1000605-04 Updated to fix the table of

contents

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 53-1001189-01 Updated for Fabric OS 6.2.0 November 2008

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide 53-1001345-01 Updated for Fabric OS 6.3.0 July 2009

October 2007

March 2008

July 2008

July 2008

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Contents

About This Document

How this document is organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Supported hardware and software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

What’s new in this document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv

Document conventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Text formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Command syntax conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Notes, cautions, and warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Notice to the reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi

Key terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi

Additional information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xvii

Brocade resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Other industry resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Optional Brocade features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii

Getting technical help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii

Document feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

Chapter 1 Access Gateway Basic Concepts

In this chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Brocade Access Gateway overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Comparing Native Fabric and Access Gateway modes . . . . . . . . 1

Fabric OS features in Access Gateway mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Access Gateway port types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Comparison of Access Gateway ports to standard switch ports. 4

Access Gateway limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Chapter 2 Configuring Ports in Access Gateway mode

In this chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Enabling and disabling Access Gateway mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Port state description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Access Gateway mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Default port mapping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Adding F_Ports to an N_Port. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Removing F_Ports from N_Ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

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N_Port configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Displaying N_Port configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Unlocking N_Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Chapter 3 Managing Policies and Features in Access Gateway Mode

In this chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Access Gateway policies overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Displaying current policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Access Gateway policy enforcement matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Advanced Device Security policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

How the ADS policy works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Enabling and disabling the Advanced Device Security policy. . 19

Setting the list of devices allowed to log in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Setting the list of devices not allowed to log in . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Removing devices from the list of allowed devices . . . . . . . . .20

Adding new devices to the list of allowed devices . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Displaying the list of allowed devices on the switch . . . . . . . . . 21

ADS policy considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Upgrade and downgrade considerations for the ADS policy . . . 21

Automatic Port Configuration policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

How the APC policy works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Enabling and disabling the APC policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Automatic Port Configuration policy considerations . . . . . . . . .23

Upgrade and downgrade considerations for the APC policy . . .23

Port Grouping policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

How port groups work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Adding an N_Port to a port group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Deleting an N_Port from a port group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Removing a port group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Renaming a port group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Disabling the Port Grouping policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Port Grouping policy modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Creating a port group and enabling login balancing mode. . . . 26

Rebalancing F_Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Enabling Managed Fabric Name Monitoring mode. . . . . . . . . .28

Disabling Managed Fabric Name Monitoring mode . . . . . . . . .28

Displaying the current fabric name monitoring timeout value .28

Setting the current fabric name monitoring timeout value. . . . 28

Port Grouping policy considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Upgrade and downgrade considerations for the

Port Grouping policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

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Persistent ALPA Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Enabling Persistent ALPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Disabling Persistent ALPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Persistent ALPA device data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Removing device data from the database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Displaying device data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Clearing ALPA values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Persistent ALPA policy considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Upgrade and downgrade considerations for Persistent ALPA. . 31

Failover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Failover configurations in Access Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Enabling and disabling Failover on a N_Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Enabling and disabling Failover for a port group . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Upgrade and downgrade considerations for Failover . . . . . . . .34

Adding a preferred secondary N_Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Deleting F_Ports from a preferred secondary N_Port . . . . . . . .34

Failback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Failback configurations in Access Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Enabling and disabling Failback on an N_Port . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Enabling and disabling Failback for a port group . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Upgrade and downgrade considerations for Failback. . . . . . . . 37

Trunking in Access Gateway mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

How Trunking works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Trunking on the Edge switch in Access Gateway mode. . . . . . . 38

Configuration management for trunk areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Enabling Access Gateway trunking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Disabling F_Port trunking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

F_Port Trunking monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Trunking considerations for the Edge switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Trunking considerations for Access Gateway mode . . . . . . . . .46

Upgrade and downgrade considerations for Trunking in Access

Gateway mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Adaptive Networking on Access Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Upgrade and downgrade considerations with

Adaptive Networking in AG mode enabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Adaptive Networking on Access Gateway considerations . . . . . 47

Chapter 4 SAN Configuration with Access Gateway

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide vii
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In this chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Connectivity of multiple devices overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Access Gateway cascading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Fabric and Edge switch configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

Verifying the switch mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Enabling NPIV on M-EOS switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

Connectivity to Cisco Fabrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

Enabling NPIV on a Cisco switch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

Workaround for certain 4 Gbps QLogic-based devices . . . . . . .53

Editing Company ID List if no FC target devices on switch . . . .53

Adding or deleting an OUI from the Company ID List . . . . . . . . 54

Enabling Flat FCID mode if no FC target devices on switch . . . 54

Editing Company ID list if target devices on switch. . . . . . . . . .55

Rejoining Fabric OS switches to a fabric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Reverting to a previous configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Appendix A Troubleshooting

Index

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Figures

Figure 1 Switch function in Native mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Figure 2 Switch function in Access Gateway mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Figure 3 Port usage comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Figure 4 Example F_Port-to-N_Port mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Figure 5 Example of adding an external F_Port (F9) on an embedded switch . . . . . . . . . 15

Figure 6 Port grouping behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Figure 7 Port group 1 (pg1) setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Figure 8 Example 1 and 2 Failover behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Figure 9 Failback behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Figure 10 Starting point for QoS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Figure 11 Access Gateway cascading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

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Tables

Tab l e 1 Fabric OS components supported on Access Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Tab l e 2 Port configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Tab l e 3 Port state description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Tab l e 4 Description of F_Port-to-N_Port mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Tab l e 5 Access Gateway default F_Port-to-N_Port mapping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Tab l e 6 Policy enforcement matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Tab l e 7 Address identifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Tab l e 8 Access Gateway trunking considerations for the Edge switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Tab l e 9 PWWN format for F_Port and N_Port trunk ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Tab l e 10 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

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About This Document

•How this document is organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

•Supported hardware and software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

•What’s new in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv

•Document conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

•Notice to the reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi

•Key terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi

•Additional information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

•Getting technical help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii

•Document feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

How this document is organized

This document is a procedural guide to help SAN administrators configure and manage Brocade
Access Gateway.

This preface contains the following components:

• Chapter 1, “Access Gateway Basic Concepts” describes the Brocade Access Gateway and

provides an overview of its key features.

• Chapter 2, “Configuring Ports in Access Gateway mode” describes how to configure ports in

Access Gateway mode.

• Chapter 3, “Managing Policies and Features in Access Gateway Mode” describes how to

enable policies on a switch in Access Gateway mode. It also provides information on how to set
up Failover and Failback, and discusses how Trunking and Adaptive Networking works in AG.

• Chapter 4, “SAN Configuration with Access Gateway” describes how to connect multiple

devices using Access Gateway.

• Appendix A, “Troubleshooting” provides symptoms and troubleshooting tips to resolve issues.

Supported hardware and software

In those instances in which procedures or parts of procedures documented here apply to some
switches but not to others, this guide identifies exactly which switches are supported and which are
not.

Although many different software and hardware configurations are tested and supported by
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. For 6.3.0, documenting all possible configurations and
scenarios is beyond the scope of this document.

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide xiii
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All Fabric OS switches must be running v6.1.0 or later; all M-EOS switches must be running M-EOSc

9.1 or later, M-EOSn must be running 9.6.2 or later, and Cisco switches with SAN OS must be
running 3.0 (1) and 3.1 (1) or later. Access Gateway supports 4 and 8 Gbit bladed servers and
blades.

Fabric OS v6.3.0 supports the following Brocade hardware platforms for Access Gateway:

• Brocade 300

• Brocade 5100

• Brocade M5424

• Brocade 5450

• Brocade 5480

What’s new in this document

The following changes have been made since this document was last released:

Information that was added:

• Adaptive Networking is supported in AG

- You can configure QoS for ingress rate limiting and SID/DID traffic prioritization for the

following configurations:

 Brocade HBA to AG to switch
 Non-Brocade HBA to AG to switch
 HBA (Brocade or Non-Brocade) to Edge AG to Core AG to switch

• Support for Persistent ALPA

- For servers that cannot handle changing addresses for the hosts and want the same PID

across login sessions

- Only supported when Access Gateway connects to a Brocade fabric.

• Manual rebalance of F_Ports to distribute them among available N_Ports.

• PG policy support for the following:

- Login balancing within port groups.

- Port group modes to allow F_Ports to connect to a specific port group

For further information, refer to the release notes.

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Document conventions

This section describes text formatting conventions and important notices formats.

Text formatting

The narrative-text formatting conventions that are used in this document are as follows:

bold text Identifies command names

italic text Provides emphasis

code text Identifies 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. The ficonCupSet and ficonCupShow commands are an exception to this convention.

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 syntax examples

Command syntax conventions

Command syntax in this manual follows these conventions:

command Commands are printed in bold.

--option, option Command options are printed in bold.

-argument, arg Arguments.

[ ] Optional element.

variable Variables are printed in italics. In the help pages, values are underlined

enclosed in angled brackets < >.

... Repeat the previous element, for example “member[;member...]”

value Fixed values following arguments are printed in plain font. For example,

--show WWN

| Boolean. Elements are exclusive. Example:

--show -mode egress | ingress

Notes, cautions, and warnings

The following notices appear in this document.

NOTE

A note provides a tip, emphasizes important information, or provides a reference to related
information.

or

Access Gateway Administrator’s Guide xv
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ATTENTION

An Attention statement indicates potential damage to hardware or data.

CAUTION

A Caution statement alerts you to situations that can be potentially hazardous to you or cause
damage to hardware, firmware, software, or data.

DANGER

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.

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.

Key terms

Corporation Referenced Trademarks and Products

Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco

Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun, Solaris

Netscape Communications Corporation Netscape

Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, Red Hat Network, Maximum RPM, Linux Undercover

Emulex Corporation Emulex

QLogic Corporation QLogic

For definitions of SAN-specific terms, visit the Storage Networking Industry Association online
dictionary at: http://www.snia.org/education/dictionary.

For definitions specific to Brocade and Fibre Channel, see the Brocade Glossary.

The following terms are used in this manual to describe Access Gateway mode and its components.

Access Gateway (AG)

Fabric OS mode for switches that reduces SAN (storage area network)
deployment complexity by leveraging NPIV (N_Port ID Virtualization).

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E_Port An ISL (Interswitch link) port. A switch port that connects switches together to

form a fabric.

Edge switch A fabric switch that connects host, storage, or other devices, such as Brocade

Access Gateway, to the fabric.

F_Port A fabric port. A switch port that connects a host, HBA (host bus adaptor), or

storage device to the SAN. On Brocade Access Gateway, the F_Port connects
to a host or a target.

Mapping On Brocade Access Gateway, the configuration of F_Port to N_Port routes.

N_Port A node port. A Fibre Channel host or storage port in a fabric or point-to-point

connection. On Brocade Access Gateway, the N_Port connects to the Edge
switch.

NPIV N_Port ID Virtualization. Allows a single Fibre Channel port to appear as

multiple, distinct ports providing separate port identification and security
zoning within the fabric for each operating system image as if each operating
system image had its own unique physical port.

Preferred Secondary N_Port

On the Brocade Access Gateway, the preferred secondary N_Port refers to the
secondary path to which an F_Port fails over if the primary N_Port goes
offline.

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 practical discussions about SAN design, implementation, and maintenance, you can obtain

Building SANs with Brocade Fabric Switches through:

http://www.amazon.com

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 My Brocade Web site (http://my.brocade.com) and are also
bundled with the Fabric OS firmware.

Other industry resources

• White papers, online demos, and data sheets are available through the Brocade Web site at

http://www.brocade.com/products/software.jhtml.

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• Best practice guides, white papers, data sheets, and other documentation is available through

the Brocade Partner Web site.

For additional resource information, visit the Technical Committee T11 Web site. This Web site
provides interface standards for high-performance and mass storage applications for Fibre
Channel, storage management, and other applications:

http://www.t11.org

For information about the Fibre Channel industry, visit the Fibre Channel Industry Association Web
site:

http://www.fibrechannel.org

Optional Brocade features

For a list of optional Brocade features and descriptions, see the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide.

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

• Technical Support contract number, if applicable

• 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 shown here.

:

*FT00X0054E9*

FT00X0054E9

The serial number label is located as follows:

• Brocade 300, 4100, 4900, 5100, 5300, 7500, 7800, 8000, and Brocade Encryption Switch—

On the switch ID pull-out tab located inside the chassis on the port side on the left

• Brocade 5000—On the switch ID pull-out tab located on the bottom of the port side of the

switch

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• Brocade 7600—On the bottom of the chassis

• Brocade 48000—Inside the chassis next to the power supply bays

• Brocade DCX—On the bottom right on the port side of the chassis

• Brocade DCX-4S—On the bottom right on the port side of the chassis, directly above the cable

management comb.

3. World Wide Name (WWN)

Use the licenseIdShow command to display the WWN of the chassis.

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. For the
Brocade DCX, access the numbers on the WWN cards by removing the Brocade logo plate at
the top of the nonport side of the chassis.

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:

[e-mail]

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.

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Chapter

Access Gateway Basic Concepts

In this chapter

•Brocade Access Gateway overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

•Fabric OS features in Access Gateway mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

•Access Gateway port types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

•Access Gateway limitations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Brocade Access Gateway overview

Brocade Access Gateway (AG) is a Fabric OS feature that lets you configure your Enterprise fabric to
handle additional N_Ports instead of domains. You do this by configuring F_Ports to connect to the
fabric as N_Ports, which increases the number of device ports you can connect to a single fabric.
Multiple AGs can connect to the DCX enterprise-class platform, directors, and switches.

Access Gateway is compatible with Fabric OS, M-EOS v9.1 or v9.6 and later, and Cisco-based
fabrics v3.0 (1) or later and v3.1 (1) and later. Enabling and disabling AG mode on a switch can be
performed from the command line interface (CLI), Web Tools, or Fabric Manager. This document
describes configurations using the CLI commands. Please see the Web Tools Administrator’s
Guide, the Fabric Manager Administrator’s Guide, or the Data Center Fabric Manager User Guide
for more information about AG support in those tools.

1

After you set a Fabric OS switch to AG mode, the F_Ports connect to the Enterprise fabric as
N_Ports rather than as E_Ports. Figure 1 shows a comparison of a configuration that connects
eight hosts to a fabric using AG to the same configuration with Fabric OS switches in Native mode.

Switches in AG mode are logically transparent to the host and the fabric. You can increase the
number of hosts that have access to the fabric without increasing the number of switches. This
simplifies configuration and management in a large fabric by reducing the number of domain IDs
and ports.

Comparing Native Fabric and Access Gateway modes

The following points summarize the differences between a Fabric OS switch functioning in Native
operating mode and a Fabric OS switch functioning in AG operating mode:

• The Fabric OS switch in Native mode is a part of the fabric; it requires two to four times as

many physical ports, consumes fabric resources, and can connect to a Fabric OS fabric only.

• A switch in AG mode is outside of the fabric; it reduces the number of switches in the fabric

and the number of required physical ports. You can connect an AG switch to either a Fabric OS,
M-EOS, or Cisco-based fabric.

For comparison, Figure 1 illustrates switch function in Native mode and Figure 2 illustrates switch
function in AG mode.

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Brocade Access Gateway overview

1

FIGURE 1 Switch function in Native mode

FIGURE 2 Switch function in Access Gateway mode

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Fabric OS features in Access Gateway mode

Fabric OS features in Access Gateway mode

Tab le 1 lists Fabric OS components that are supported on a switch when AG mode is enabled. “No”

indicates that the feature is not provided in AG mode. “NA” indicates this feature is not applicable
in Access Gateway mode of operation. A single asterisk (*) indicates the feature is transparent to
AG, that is AG forwards the request to the Enterprise fabric. Two asterisks (**) indicates that if the
Enterprise fabric is not a Brocade fabric, the feature may not be available.

TABLE 1 Fabric OS components supported on Access Gateway

Feature Support

Access Control Yes (limited roles)

Adaptive Networking Yes

Audit Yes

Beaconing Yes

Config Download/Upload Yes

DHCP Yes

Environmental Monitor Yes

Error Event Management Yes

Extended Fabrics No

Fabric Device Management Interface (FDMI) Yes*

Fabric Manager Yes**

Fabric Watch Yes (limited)

FICON (includes CUP) No

High Availability Hot Code Load

Native Interoperability Mode NA

License Yes**

Log Tracking Yes

Management Server NA

Manufacturing Diagnostics Yes

N_Port ID Virtualization Yes

Name Server NA

Network Time Protocol (NTP) No (no relevance from fabric perspective)

Open E_Port NA

Performance Monitor Yes (Basic PM only, no APM support)

Persistent ALPA Yes

Port Mirroring No

QuickLoop, QuickLoop Fabric Assist No

Security Yes (ADS and DCC policies)

SNMP Yes

Speed Negotiation Yes

1

1

2

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Access Gateway port types

1

TABLE 1 Fabric OS components supported on Access Gateway

Feature Support

Syslog Daemon Yes

Tru nkin g Yes* *

ValueLineOptions (Static POD, DPOD) Yes

Web Tools Yes

1. When a switch is behaving as an AG, RBAC features in Fabric OS are available, but there
are some limitations. For more information on the limitations, refer to “Access Gateway

limitations” on page 5.

2. In embedded switches, time should be updated by the server management utility.

Access Gateway port types

Access Gateway differs from a typical fabric switch because it is not a switch; instead, it is a mode
that you enable on a switch using the ag command. After a switch is set in ag mode, it can connect
to the fabric using node ports (N_Ports). Typically fabric switches connect to the Enterprise fabric
using ISL (InterSwitch Link) ports, such as E_Ports.

Following are the Fibre Channel (FC) ports that AG uses:

• F_Port - fabric port that connects a host, HBA, or storage device to a switch in AG mode.

• N_Port - node port that connects a switch in AG mode to the F_Port of the fabric switch.

Comparison of Access Gateway ports to standard switch ports

Access Gateway multiplexes host connections to the fabric. It presents an F_Port to the host and an
N_Port to an Edge fabric switch. Using N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV), AG allows multiple FC
initiators to access the SAN on the same physical port. This reduces the hardware requirements
and management overhead of hosts to the SAN connections.

A fabric switch presents F_Ports (or FL_Ports) and storage devices to the host and presents
E_Ports, VE_Ports, or EX_Ports to other switches in the fabric. A fabric switch consumes SAN
resources, such as domain IDs, and participates in fabric management and zoning distribution. A
fabric switch requires more physical ports than AG to connect the same number of hosts.

Figure 3 on page 5 shows a comparison of the types of ports a switch in AG mode uses to the type

of ports that a switch uses in standard mode.

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Hosts

Access Gateway Ports

Switch in AG mode

Access Gateway limitations

Fabric

1

N_Port

N_Port

F_Port

N_Port

F_Port

Edge Switch
F_Port

NPIV
enabled

Fabric Switch Ports

Fabric

Hosts

N_Port

N_Port

Switch in Native

Fabric mode

F_Port

F_Port

E_Port

E_Port

Fabric Switch

E_Port

E_Port

FIGURE 3 Port usage comparison

Tab le 2 shows a comparison of port configurations with AG to a standard fabric switch.

TABLE 2 Port configurations

Port Type Access Gateway Fabric switch

F_Port Yes Connects hosts and targets to

Access Gateway.

N_Port Yes Connects Access Gateway to a fabric

switch.

E_Port NA ISL is not supported.

1. The switch is logically transparent to the fabric, therefore it does not participate in the SAN as a fabric switch.

Access Gateway limitations

The limitations of Access Gateway are as follows:

• Only the switch platforms and embedded switch platforms listed in “Supported hardware and

software” on page xiii.

• The maximum number of devices that can be connected to a Fabric OS switch through AG

depends on the maximum number of local devices supported by Fabric OS.

• Loop devices are not supported.

• Port groups cannot be overlapped. This means that an N_Port cannot belong to two different

groups.

Yes Connects devices, such as hosts, HBAs,

and storage to the fabric.

NA N_Ports are not supported.

1

Yes Connects the switch to other switches to

form a fabric.

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