Dell Brocade 5300, Brocade 6520, Brocade 6510, Brocade 5100, Brocade 300 Manual

Brocade Fabric OS v7.3.0c

Release Notes v1.0

October 28, 2014

Document History

Document Title	Summary of Changes	Publication Date
Brocade Fabric OS v7.3.0b Release Notes v1.0	Initial Release	October 28, 2014

Fabric OS v7.3.0c Release Notes v1.0

© 2014 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

ADX, AnyIO, Brocade, Brocade Assurance, the B-wing symbol, DCX, Fabric OS, ICX, MLX, MyBrocade, OpenScript, VCS, VDX, and Vyatta are registered trademarks, and HyperEdge, The Effortless Network, and The On-Demand Data Center are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. Other brands, products, or service names mentioned may be trademarks 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.

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Contents
Overview ......................................................................................................................................................	5
New Hardware Support ...........................................................................................................................................	5
Summary of New Software Features ......................................................................................................................	5
New Feature Descriptions..........................................................................................................................	7
New FCIP Features on Brocade 7840 ....................................................................................................................	7
Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite (MAPS) Enhancements................................................................................	8
Flow Vision Enhancements .....................................................................................................................................	9
ClearLink Diagnostic (D_Port) Enhancements .....................................................................................................	10
Read Diagnostics Parameters ..............................................................................................................................	11
Link Cable Beacon (Port Peer Beacon).................................................................................................................	11
E_Port Balance Priority Routing ............................................................................................................................	11
FCR enhancements ...............................................................................................................................................	11
Security Enhancements ........................................................................................................................................	11
Access Gateway Enhancements ...........................................................................................................................	12
Zoning Enhancements...........................................................................................................................................	12
High Integrity Fabric...............................................................................................................................................	12
RAS Enhancements ...............................................................................................................................................	12
Brocade 8510 ICL Scalability Enhancement .......................................................................................................	13
Miscellaneous Enhancements..............................................................................................................................	13
Optionally Licensed Software..................................................................................................................	15
Temporary License Support ....................................................................................................................	19
Supported Switches..................................................................................................................................	20
Standards Compliance .............................................................................................................................	20
Technical Support.....................................................................................................................................	20
FOS Migration Considerations ................................................................................................................	22
FOS Upgrade and Downgrade Special Considerations........................................................................................	22
Recommended Migration Paths to FOS v7.3.0c..................................................................................................	22
Important Notes.........................................................................................................................................	23
Brocade Network Advisor Compatibility ...............................................................................................................	23
WebTools Compatibility .........................................................................................................................................	24
SMI Compatibility...................................................................................................................................................	24
Fabric OS Compatibility .........................................................................................................................................	24
SNMP Support .......................................................................................................................................................	26
Blade Support............................................................................................................................................	35
Scalability...................................................................................................................................................	40
Other Important Notes and Recommendations .....................................................................................	40
Adaptive Networking/Flow-Based QoS Prioritization...........................................................................................	40
Access Gateway .....................................................................................................................................................	41
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Brocade HBA/Adapter Compatibility ....................................................................................................................	41
D_Port.....................................................................................................................................................................	41
Encryption Behavior for the Brocade Encryption Switch (BES) and FS8-18 ......................................................	42
FCIP (Brocade 7800 and FX8-24).........................................................................................................................	43
FCIP (Brocade 7840).............................................................................................................................................	43
FCoE/DCB/CEE (FCOE10-24) ...............................................................................................................................	44
FCR and Integrated Routing..................................................................................................................................	46
Forward Error Correction (FEC) .............................................................................................................................	46
FICON......................................................................................................................................................................	46
FL_Port (Loop) Support..........................................................................................................................................	46
Flow Vision .............................................................................................................................................................	47
ICLs on DCX/DCX-4S .............................................................................................................................................	47
Native Connectivity (M-EOS interoperability)........................................................................................................	47
Port Initialization ....................................................................................................................................................	47
Port Mirroring .........................................................................................................................................................	47
Virtual Fabrics ........................................................................................................................................................	47
WebTools................................................................................................................................................................	48
Zoning.....................................................................................................................................................................	48
Miscellaneous ........................................................................................................................................................	48
Defects .......................................................................................................................................................	50
Closed with Code Change in Fabric OS v7.3.0c...................................................................................................	50

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Overview

FOS v7.3.0c is a patch release based on FOS v7.3.0b. All hardware platforms and features supported in FOS v7.3.0b are also supported in FOS v7.3.0a.

This release contains a fix for a security vulnerability associated with OpenSSL. Software patches are apply to the existing version of OpenSSL packages. The detail of these patches are:

•OpenSSL vulnerability: CVE-2014-3566

This release also contains a fix for the incorrect fan airflow display on Brocade 6505 and 6510. FOS versions without this fix incorrectly report the correct Reverse or port-side exhaust fan direction as “Forward”, whereas the correct Forward or port-side intake fan direction as “Reverse” through the chassisShow CLI command (defect 524910). CLI command chassisShow will display the correct fan airflow direction after upgrading to FOS v7.3.0c.

New Hardware Support

FOS v7.3.0c introduces support for long distance 16G optical cable QSFP that extends the ICL connectivity up to two kilometers (km).

FOS v7.3 introduces support for the following new 16G FC hardware platform:

•Brocade 7840 Gen 5 FC extension switch platform that offers the following capabilities: o Support 24 16G FC ports, 16 10GE/1GE FCIP ports, and 2 40GE FCIP ports

o Support maximum 40G WAN throughput with two WAN Rate upgrade licenses. o Support maximum 20G bandwidth on a VE port.

o Support existing FCIP features on Brocade 7800 and FX8-24 blade. o Support non-disruptive firmware download.

o Support Fabric Vision features.

o Support increased compression performance. o Support stream based flow control.

o Support out of order TCP delivery. o Support WAN link test tool.

•Brocade FC16-64 port blade for Brocade 8510 that offers the following capabilities:

o 16 QSFP ports per blade provide total 64 FC ports supporting 16G, 8G, and 4G speeds. o 512 16G FC ports in a fully populated Brocade 8510-8 chassis.

FOS v7.3 introduces the support of the existing FCOE10-24 blade in a Brocade 8510-8 chassis. FOS v7.3 supports all hardware platforms supported by FOS v7.2.x.

Summary of New Software Features

In addition to new hardware support, FOS v7.3 also includes support for a number of software features and enhancements:

•Support for new FCIP features on Brocade 7840.

•Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suites (MAPS) enhancements

o Monitor Fabric Performance Impact due to bottleneck conditions o Monitor new FCIP statistics on Brocade 7840

o Monitor fabric scalability limits

o Monitor ClearLink diagnostics ports o Monitor Ethernet management ports o Monitor Flow Vision learning flows

o Support Port Decommissioning as an action o Support dynamic groups

o Support port group augmentation o Usability enhancements

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•Flow Vision enhancements

oFlow Performance Monitor enhancements

oFlow Mirror enhancements

oFlow Generator enhancements

oMiscellaneous Flow Vision enhancements

•ClearLink Diagnostic Port (D_Port) enhancements

oD_Port and MAPS integration

oDynamic D_Port and On-demand D_Port on ISLs

oD_Port Provision

oD_Port test result display enhancements

oD_Port on FC16-64 QSFPs

•Read Diagnostics Parameter (RDP)

•Link Cable Beacon (Port Peer Beacon)

•E_Port Balance Priority Routing enhancement

•FCR enhancements

oEnhancements to FCR CLIs

oSupport fabric alias names for edge fabric IDs

•Security enhancements

oSupport SHA-256 for FCAP and DH-CHAP

o Support in-flight encryption with FCAP generated keys

oSupport fabric-wide consistency policy co-existence with FCR

oOpen Software Source packages upgrade

•Access Gateway enhancements

oSupport user account and password database distribution to Access Gateway

oSupport dynamic D_Port on links connecting to HBAs.

•Zoning enhancement

oDisallow zone merge with mismatching default zone access mode

•Support High Integrity Fabric

•RAS enhancements

•FICON enhancements

•Brocade 8510 ICL scalability enhancements

•Miscellaneous enhancements

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New Feature Descriptions

New FCIP Features on Brocade 7840

In addition to the existing FCIP features supported on Brocade 7800 and FX8-24, FOS v7.3 supports the following new FCIP features on Brocade 7840.

•Support maximum 40G WAN throughput.

•Support maximum 20G bandwidth on a VE port.

•Non-disruptive firmware download.

•Fabric Vision for Extension.

o ClearLink Diagnostic Port (D_Port) on all FC ports.

o Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suites (MAPS) for FCIP QoS, tunnels, and circuits.

oFull Flow Vision capabilities on all FC ports.

•Ethernet Jumbo Frame

•IPSec enhancement

•Adaptive Rate Limiting (ARL) enhancements

•Increased compression performance

•Path MTU Discovery

•Stream based flow control

•Out of order TCP delivery

•WAN test tool

Support maximum 40G WAN throughput

FOS v7.3 supports maximum 40G WAN throughput on Brocade 7840. The maximum throughput is supported with two WAN Rate Upgrade licenses. The base configuration without either WAN upgrade license supports maximum 5G WAN throughput.

Support maximum 20G bandwidth on a VE port

FOS v7.3 supports on Brocade 7840 10 VE mode with maximum 20G bandwidth on a VE port and 20 VE mode with maximum 10G bandwidth on a VE port. End users can create single FCIP circuit with 20G bandwidth or create multiple circuits to load balance with different bandwidths that sum to 20G.

Non-disruptive Firmware Download

FOS v7.3 supports firmware download on Brocade 7840 without disruption to FCIP links. During a nondisruptive firmware download, throughput of individual FCIP tunnels are maintained, while the total bandwidth is limited to half of the maximum bandwidth supported on the platform.

Fabric Vision for Extension

FOS v7.3 supports and expands Fabric Vision features for Brocade 7840 Extension platform. These include:

•ClearLink Diagnostic Port (D_Port) on all FC ports to diagnose FC link optics and cable problems.

•Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suites (MAPS) enhancements to provide pre-defined threshold and alerting rules for FCIP statistics at QoS level, tunnel level, and circuit level and capture FCIP specific violations in MAPS dashboard.

•Full Flow Vision feature support on all FC ports to provide broad visibility, deep insight, and preproduction validation for traffic between data centers across FCIP links.

Ethernet Jumbo Frame

FOS v7.3 supports a Jumbo IP frame with MTU up to 9216 bytes on Brocade 7840.

IPSec Enhancements

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FOS v7.3 increase IPSec performance on Brocade 7840 with near line-rate throughput. FOS v7.3 implements IPSec configuration through a policy applied to a FCIP tunnel. IPSec supports both IPv4 and IPv6 and jumbo frames.

Adaptive Rate Limiting (ARL) Enhancements

FOS v7.3 implements two new ARL algorithms, Modified Multiplicative Decrease and Time-based Decrease, to provide additional performance tailored to network conditions. In addition, ARL ramp up time has been decreased from 10s to 1s comparing to Brocade 7800.

Increased Compression Performance

FOS v7.3 supports increased compression performance on FC data frames on Brocade 7840 before they are sent through FCIP channels. End users can choose None, Aggressive Deflate, Deflate, and Fast Deflate compression algorithm to choose from the highest compression ratio but lowest pre-compression throughput at 10G to lowest compression ratio but highest pre-compression throughput at 40G.

Path MTU Discovery

FOS v7.3 supports path MTU discovery on Brocade 7840 to automatically discover IP MTU settings over the WANs.

Stream Based Flow Control

FOS v7.3 supports stream based flow control on Brocade 7840 to isolate slow devices from affecting performance of other devices for emulated devices sharing the same VE_Port.

Out of Order TCP Delivery

FOS v7.3 supports out of order TCP delivery on Brocade 7840 over WAN connections to minimize retransmission of FC frames in a scenario of TCP packet loss.

WAN Test Tool

FOS v7.3 supports a WAN test tool on Brocade 7840 to generate test traffic over a pair of IP addresses to test a WAN path for any network issue.

Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite (MAPS) Enhancements

FOS v7.3 has a number of important MAPS feature enhancements. These include:

•Monitor Fabric Performance Impact

•Monitor new FCIP statistics on Brocade 7840

•Monitor fabric scalability limits

•Monitor ClearLink Diagnostic ports

•Monitor Ethernet management ports

•Monitor Flow Vision learning flows

•Support Port Decommissioning as an action

•Support dynamic groups

•Support port group augmentation

•Usability enhancements

Monitor Fabric Performance Impact

FOS v7.3 supports automatic monitoring and alerting of latency bottleneck conditions through pre-defined thresholds and alerts in all pre-defined policies in MAPS. The advanced monitoring capabilities identify ports in

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two latency severity levels and provide intuitive reporting in MAPS dashboard under a new Fabric Performance Impact category.

Monitor FCIP statistics

FOS v7.3 supports new monitoring elements (RTT, Jitter) in the FCIP circuit group, adds a FCIP tunnel group to monitor tunnel state change and throughput, adds 4 FCIP tunnel QoS groups to monitor throughput and packet loss for each QoS priority. These new monitoring elements and groups are included in MAPS pre-defined policies and supported only on Brocade 7840.

Monitor fabric scalability limit

FOS v7.3 supports new monitoring elements in the switch group to monitor them against the fabric scalability limits supported by Brocade. These elements include number of device connections in a layer2 fabric, number of imported devices in a metaSAN, number of FCRs in a backbone fabric, and zoning database size. These new monitoring elements are included in MAPS pre-defined policies.

Monitor ClearLink Diagnostic (D_Port) ports

FOS v7.3 supports new monitoring elements for port error statistics (CRC, ITW, PE, LF, and LOSS_SYNC) in a new D_Port logical group to monitor D_Port tests so that the test results can be determined by thresholds in the MAPS rules. These new monitoring elements and groups are included in MAPS pre-defined policies.

Monitor Ethernet management port

FOS v7.3 supports monitoring Ethernet management port state in a new Ethernet port group to generate alerts if states for Ethernet management ports are changed. These new monitoring elements and group are included in MAPS pre-defined policies.

Monitor Flow Vision learning flows

FOS v7.3 supports importing and monitoring of learning flows created through Flow Vision in MAPS. Administrators can use this capability to configure thresholds and alerts for application flows without knowing the source or destination device identities in advance.

Support Port Decommissioning as an action

FOS v7.3 supports port decommissioning as an action that can be triggered by MAPS rules. With port decommissioning, ports can be gracefully shutdown in the event of violations without I/O interruption. FOS v7.3 supports port decommissioning on E_Port natively through MAPS. For port decommissioning on F_Port, Brocade Network Advisor 12.3 is required.

Support dynamic group based on user defined pattern

FOS v7.3 introduces dynamic group to enhance logic group definition for port objects. Administrators can create custom groups whose membership dynamically changes based on user defined port identity traits.

Support port group augmentation

FOS v7.3 implements port group augmentation to pre-defined groups and dynamic groups so that administrators can make small adjustments to group memberships without having to create a new group.

Usability enhancements

FOS v7.3 has a number of usability enhancements to MAPS. These include:

•Change mapssam CLI to display system CPU, memory, and flash usage.

•Change mapsrule and logicalgroup CLIs to make deletion of rules and groups easier.

•Add a new option to mapsConfig CLI to send test emails to validate email configuration.

Flow Vision Enhancements

FOS v7.3 has a number of important Flow Vision enhancements to the Flow Monitor, Flow Generator, and Flow Mirror functionalities.

Flow Monitor enhancements

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FOS v7.3 extends the learning capability to Flow Monitor on E_Port and Ex_Port. FOS v7.3 also supports Flow Monitor for static and learning flows on XISL ports and backbone E_Port. These enhancements allow administrators to apply Flow Monitor function at all point of interests in most supported SAN topologies.

Flow Mirror enhancements

FOS v7.3 introduces Local Flow Mirror to mirror application flows to a mirror port on the same local switch where the flows are defined. This feature enables administrators to attach external analyzers to the mirror port to capture all frames belonging to the flows for deep analysis. FOS v7.3 enhance Flow Mirror to mirror flows originated from switch CPU and egress on a port, to mirror flows on either ingress or egress on F_Port and F_Port trunks. FOS v7.3 adds the support of combination of -frametype and -ingrport keywords and combination of -frametype and -bidir keywords in flow definition for Flow Mirror.

Flow Generator enhancements

FOS v7.3 introduces a system pre-defined flow sys_gen_all_simports for Flow Generator to generate test traffic from every SIM port in a switch to all the other SIM ports. This allows administrators to fully stress test a switch before deployment.

Miscellaneous Flow Vision enhancements

FOS v7.3 supports duplicated flow definition to be created but not activated in a switch. Administrators can create flows with the same parameters but for different Flow Vision functions. FOS v7.3 increases the maximum number of flows on fixed port switches to 128 user-defined flows and 128 sub flows and on backbone switches to 512 user-defined flows and 512 sub flows.

ClearLink Diagnostic (D_Port) Enhancements

FOS v7.3 implements following important D_Port feature enhancements. D_Port and MAPS Integration

FOS v7.3 integrate D_Port test with MAPS threshold based monitoring. Administrators can use this ability to automatically monitor D_Port tests and determine D_Port test success or failure base on threshold settings within MAPS.

Dynamic D_Port and On-demand D_Port

FOS v7.3 implements dynamic D_Port and on-demand D_Port modes on ISLs. With these modes, administrators can configure D_Port test to be run automatically on ISLs after switch enable, slot enable, or port persistent enable.

D_Port Provision

FOS v7.3 implements D_Port provision list to be configured by CLI command portcfgdport (via --provision option). Ports on the pre-provisioned list do not need to be disabled before being configured as D_Port.

portCfgDport Show Result

FOS v7.3 enhances the D_Port test result displayed by portCfgDport command (via --show option) to clearly identify loopback connection type or remote port index.

Port LED Display D_Port Result

FOS v7.3 implements visually display D_Port test failure by flashing yellow on the port LED. D_Port on FC16-64 Blade QSFPs

FOS v7.3 implements D_Port test on the FC compliant QSFPs for FC16-64 blade. Electrical loopback and optical loopback tests are not supported on these QSFPs. Only link saturation test and link distance and latency measurements are performed.

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Read Diagnostics Parameters

FOS v7.3 introduces the Read Diagnostics Parameters feature to support reporting diagnostics parameters associated with optics and media for any link between Nx_port and Fx_port from any point within a fabric. Administrators can use this ability to discover and diagnose link related errors or degrading conditions from a single point anywhere within a fabric.

Link Cable Beacon (Port Peer Beacon)

FOS v7.3 introduces the support of Link Cable Beacon feature, with which administrators can run the portpeerbeacon command to turn on port LED beacon on both end of a link cable connection. Administrators can use this feature to quickly identify peer ports of a connection without physically tracing the cables in a data center.

E_Port Balance Priority Routing

FOS v7.3 enhances routing policy with the E_Port Balance Priority option. With this enhancement, when multiple paths to a domain exist, routing policy would assign routes so that the bandwidth demands from source ports are evenly distributed among all E_Ports.

FCR enhancements

FOS v7.3 adds a number of enhancements to FCR. lsanZoneShow Change

FOS v7.3 enhances CLI lsanZoneShow (via -d option) to display the fabric IDs for devices exist in a fabric and devices imported to a fabric.

lsCfg Change

FOS v7.3 enhances CLI lsCfg (via --show -n option) to display additional information for a logical switch. Fabric Alias Name

FOS v7.3 supports assigning alias names to each edge fabric IDs. Administrator can use the fabric alias name to represent each edge fabric.

Security Enhancements

FOS v7.3 has a number of important security enhancements. FCAP and DH-CHAP Enhancements

FOS v7.3 supports SHA-256 hashing algorithm for FCAP and DH-CHAP in both FIPS mode and non-FIPS mode to provide stronger security.

In-flight Encryption Enhancements

FOS v7.3 supports in-flight encryption with session keys derived from FCAP. With this enhancement, administrators can use FCAP and in-flight encryption features at the same time.

Fabric-wide Consistency Policy Enhancements

FOS v7.3 supports FCRs to be present in a fabric with strict fabric-wide consistency policy configuration. Administrators can turn on strict fabric-wide consistency policy even when an FCR is connected to the fabric via an Ex_Port.

Open Source Software Packages

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FOS v7.3 upgrades a number of important open source software packages (openSSH, openSSL, Apache) to provide stronger security.

Access Gateway Enhancements

FOS v7.3 implements following Access Gateway (AG) enhancements. ClearLink Diagnostics (D_Port) Support on AG

FOS v7.3 supports dynamic D_Port on connections between an AG and an HBA to allow automatically start D_Port test requested by an HBA.

User Account and Password Distribution to AG

FOS v7.3 supports user account and password database distribution from a native switch to an AG so that user accounts and passwords can be managed the same way as native switches in a fabric.

Fabric Device Management Interface (FDMI) Data Access on AG

FOS v7.3 adds the support of accessing device information for devices that are registered with FDMI and connected through AGs.

Zoning Enhancements

FOS v7.3 enhances zoning to disallow two fabrics with empty zoning configuration to merge if one fabric has All Access as default zone access mode and the other has No Access as default zone access mode. This enhancement prevents the fabric with All Access default zone access mode from losing all device connections due to converting to No Access default zone access mode after fabrics merging.

High Integrity Fabric

FOS v7.3 introduces support of High Integrity Fabric mode to ensure strict and consistent fabric configurations required by a FICON fabric, which include Insistent Domain ID and strict fabric-wide Switch Connection Control policy. Administrators can use the High Integrity Fabric mode to enforce these configurations for a FICON fabric.

RAS Enhancements

FOS v7.3 implements the following RAS enhancements. Frame Viewer (Class 3 Discard Log) Enhancements

FOS v7.3 enhances Frame Viewer to capture two new types of class 3 discard frames. The new discard types captured include destination unreachable frames and unroutable frames.

Audit Log for Class 3 Discard Frames

FOS v7.3 adds to audit log message for each class 3 discard frame. This ability to allow administrator to configure audit log to send class 3 discard frame messages to a centralized syslog server, which does not have size limitation of a switch Frame Viewer log.

Forward Error Correction (FEC) Enhancements

FOS v7.3 adds the ability to allow FEC capability negotiation during speed negotiation in Transmitter Training Signal. This ability can be configured by existing CLI command portCfgFec.

Firmware Download Enhancement

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FOS v7.3 introduces firmware sync ability for the firmware on an active CP to be automatically synced to a standby CP after the standby CP is hot-plugged into a backbone switch chassis. Administrator can configure this ability on their chassis to enable quick operational replacement of a standby CP.

Rolling Reboot Detection Enhancements

FOS v7.3 enhances the rolling reboot detection feature to detect and stop a rolling reboot in disabled FOS switch state as a first attempt. This would enable an administrator to capture more diagnostic information.

New external RASLOG for Link Reset

FOS v7.3 adds a new external RASLOG (Cx-1014) for Link Reset due to credit loss for both front-end and backend ports.

supportInfoClear Command

FOS v7.3 introduces a new CLI command supportInfoClear to clear a number of statistics counters and logs. This command can help administrators to quickly reset the counters and logs on behalf of switch vendors in support scenarios.

Brocade 8510 ICL Scalability Enhancement

FOS v7.3 increases the supported number 8510 chassis connected via ICL in a core-edge topology to twelve switches.

Miscellaneous Enhancements

trunkShow CLI Enhancement

FOS v7.3 adds to CLI trunkShow (via -swname option) to display the switch name of the neighboring switch connected on the other end of trunked ports.

fabricShow CLI Enhancement

FOS v7.3 adds to CLI fabricShow (via -version option) to display the firmware version of each switch listed in the fabricShow output.

portShow and portName CLI Enhancement

FOS v7.3 enhances the CLI portShow and portName to display as port name the host name registered with FDMI for the host system attached to that port. Administrators must enable the “Display FDMI Host Name” configuration via the configure CLI.

fspfShow and lsdbShow CLI Enhancement

FOS v7.3 changes fspfShow and lsdbShow CLI output to omit all zero value to be listed in port bitmap values. Device Probing and Update on ALPA 0xC0 and 0x40

FOS v7.3 enhances FCP probing for devices connected to a port with ALPA 0xC0 and 0x40 to obtain the device information for NS entry.

For base devices that logged in with ALPA 0xC0 and 0x40, FOS v7.3 provides the ability to update NS entries when these base devices perform logout. Administrators can turn on this update mode to ensure NS and login database consistency with “F-port Device Update Mode” option under the “Fabric parameters” section of the configure CLI. This option can only be changed when a switch is disabled.

NPIV Base Device Logout Enhancements

FOS v7.3 enhances NPIV by allowing NPIV devices remain logged in on a port to a fabric when the base device on the same port performs a logout. Administrator can configure this feature via the portCfgFlogiLogout CLI.

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fosExec Remote Execution

FOS v7.3 adds the ability to execute a FOS CLI command via fosExec CLI on a remote domain in the fabric. Administrators can enable this capability to execute CLI commands on multiple switches from a single switch in a fabric.

CS_CTL QoS Enhancements

FOS v7.3 enhances CS_CTL based QoS feature by reporting the CS_CTL auto mode in responses to device FLOGI, FDISC, and PLOGI requests.

bottleneckMon CLI Change

FOS v7.3 deprecates the back-end credit recovery options in the bottleneckMon CLI. These options are supported via the existing creditRecovMode CLI.

Maximum Auto Speed Negotiation

FOS v7.3 allows configuring a maximum speed for port auto speed negotiation with CLI portcfgspeed (via -m option). Administrators can use this to control the maximum speed a device is allowed to join a fabric but still allow port speed to be auto negotiated.

Back-end credit recovery on FX8-24 blade

FOS v7.3 enhances back-end credit loss detection and recovery to back-end links on FX8-24 with the existing CLI command creditRecovMode.

aptPolicy change

FOS v7.3 deprecates AP policy related configuration from the CLI command aptPolicy. AP policy is used only by FR4-18i blade, which is not supported since FOS 7.1.

slotPowerOn and slotPowerOff enhancement

FOS v7.3 supports slotPowerOn and slotPowerOff command on core blades in a DCX/DCX-4 or DCX 8510/DCX 8510-4 chassis. Administrators can use this command to power on or off a core blade without physical presence.

Port Transition from Persistent Disabled to Disabled

FOS v7.3 supports directly transition a persistently disabled port to the disabled state without having to persistently enable the port first. Administrator can configure this option via the new portCfgPersistence command

portBeacon Change

FOS v7.3 enhances the portBeacon command to list all beaconing ports in a switch (via -all option). ethif Command

FOS v7.3 introduces a new CLI command ethif to manage the switch Ethernet management interfaces. With this command, administrator can configure and show the state Ethernet management interfaces.

haRedundancy Command

FOS v7.3 introduces a new CLI command haRedundancy to display switch uptime and HA redundancy settings for a backbone switch.

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Optionally Licensed Software

Fabric OS v7.3 includes all basic switch and fabric support software, as well as optionally licensed software that is enabled via license keys.

Optionally licensed features include:

Brocade Ports on Demand—Allows customers to instantly scale the fabric by provisioning additional ports via license key upgrade. (Applies to select models of switches).

Brocade Extended Fabrics—Provides greater than 10km of switched fabric connectivity at full bandwidth over long distances (depending on platform this can be up to 3000km).

Note:

If a port on 16G FC blades or a 16G switch is configured to operate at 10G speed, Extended fabrics license is not needed to enable long distance connectivity on that port.

Brocade ISL Trunking— Provides the ability to aggregate multiple physical links into one logical link for enhanced network performance and fault tolerance. Also includes Access Gateway ISL Trunking on those products that support Access Gateway deployment.

Brocade Advanced Performance Monitoring—Enables performance monitoring of networked storage resources. This license includes the Top Talkers feature.

Brocade Fabric Watch — Monitors mission-critical switch operations. Fabric Watch includes Port Fencing capabilities.

Brocade Fabric Vision – Enables MAPS (Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite), Flow Vision, and ClearLink (D_Port) to non-Brocade devices. MAPS enables rules based monitoring and alerting capabilities, provides comprehensive dashboards to quickly troubleshoot problems in Brocade SAN environments. Flow Vision enables host to LUN flow monitoring, application flow mirroring for non-disruptive capture and deeper analysis, and test traffic flow generation function for SAN infrastructure validation. D_Port to non-Brocade devices allows extensive diagnostic testing of links to devices other than Brocade switches and adapters. (Functionality requires support by attached device, availability TBD).

Fabric Vision license also enables Fabric Watch and Advanced Performance Monitoring functionalities without requiring Brocade Fabric Watch or Brocade Advanced Performance Monitoring license (with FOS v7.2 and later only).

Note:

If installed on a switch operating with FOS v7.1.x, the Fabric Vision license will be displayed as “Fabric Insight”. If installed on a switch operating with FOS v7.0.x or earlier, the Fabric Vision license will be displayed as “Unknown”. Fabric Vision features are not supported under FOS v7.1.x or earlier.

FICON Management Server— Also known as “CUP” (Control Unit Port), enables host-control of switches in Mainframe environments.

Enhanced Group Management — This license enables full management of devices in a data center fabric with deeper element management functionality and greater management task aggregation throughout the environment. This license is used in conjunction with Brocade Network Advisor application software and is applicable to all FC platforms supported by FOS v7.0 or later.

Note: This capability is enabled by default on all Gen 5 65XX model switches and DCX 8510 platforms, and on DCX and DCX-4S platforms that are running Fabric OS v7.0.0 or later. Gen 5 embedded switches receive this capability by default with FOS v7.2.1 and later. Individual upgrade is required when upgrading directly to FOS v7.2.1 on Gen 5 embedded switches. Subsequent group operations on Gen 5 embedded switches including group upgrade are supported..

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Adaptive Networking with QoS—Adaptive Networking provides a rich framework of capability allowing a user to ensure high priority connections obtain the bandwidth necessary for optimum performance, even in congested environments. The QoS SID/DID Prioritization and Ingress Rate Limiting features are the first components of this license option, and are fully available on all 8Gb and 16Gb platforms.

Note :

With FOS v7.2, the Adaptive Networking license has become part of the base FOS firmware, and features under this license no longer require the license to be installed. Customers that wish to have these capabilities without purchasing the license are required to upgrade to FOS v7.2 or later.

Brocade 6520 does not require the Adaptive Networking with QoS license to enable the capabilities associated with this license. These capabilities are included by default on the Brocade 6520.

Server Application Optimization — When deployed with Brocade Server Adapters, this license optimizes overall application performance for physical servers and virtual machines by extending virtual channels to the server infrastructure. Application specific traffic flows can be configured, prioritized, and optimized throughout the entire data center infrastructure. This license is not supported on the Brocade 8000.

Note :

With FOS v7.2, Server Application Optimization license has become part of the base FOS firmware, and features under this license no longer require the license to be installed. Customers that wish to have these capabilities without purchasing the license are required to upgrade to FOS v7.2 or later.

Brocade 6520 does not require the SAO license to enable the capabilities associated with this license. These capabilities are included by default on the Brocade 6520.

Integrated Routing— This license allows any port in a DCX 8510-8, DCX 8510-4, Brocade 6510, Brocade 6520, DCX-4S, DCX, 5300, 5100, 7800, 7840, or Brocade Encryption Switch to be configured as an Ex_port or VEx_port (on some platforms) supporting Fibre Channel Routing.

Encryption Performance Upgrade — This license provides additional encryption processing power. For the Brocade Encryption Switch or a DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510-8/DCX 8510-4, the Encryption Performance License can be installed to enable full encryption processing power on the BES or on all FS8-18 blades installed in a DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510-8/DCX 8510-4 chassis.

DataFort Compatibility — This license is required on the Brocade Encryption Switch or DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510- 8/DCX 8510-4 with FS8-18 blade(s) to read and decrypt NetApp DataFort-encrypted disk and tape LUNs. DataFort Compatibility License is also required on the Brocade Encryption Switch or DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510- 8/DCX 8510-4 Backbone with FS8-18 Encryption Blade(s) installed to write and encrypt the disk and tape LUNs in NetApp DataFort Mode (Metadata and Encryption Algorithm) so that DataFort can read and decrypt these LUNs. DataFort Mode tape encryption and compression is supported beginning with the FOS v6.2.0 release on DCX platforms. Availability of the DataFort Compatibility license is limited; contact your vendor for details.

Advanced Extension – This license enables two advanced extension features: FCIP Trunking and Adaptive Rate Limiting. The FCIP Trunking feature allows multiple IP source and destination address pairs (defined as FCIP Circuits) via multiple 1GbE or 10GbE interfaces to provide a high bandwidth FCIP tunnel and failover resiliency. In addition, each FCIP circuit supports four QoS classes (Class-F, High, Medium and Low Priority), each as a TCP connection. The Adaptive Rate Limiting feature provides a minimum bandwidth guarantee for each tunnel with full utilization of the available network bandwidth without impacting throughput performance under high traffic load. This license is available on the 7800, 7840, and the DCX/DCX-4S/DCX 8510-8/DCX 8510-4 for the FX8-24 on an individual slot basis.

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