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MXL and FCoE configuration troubles - help!
Hi there,
We are trying to configure seven M630 blades in an M1000e chassis. Each blade is equipped with a Qlogic 57810 dual port 10Gb CNA in Fabric B. In each Fabric B IO slots are an MXL switch equipped with an FC Flex IO module. We have two uplinks in each Flex IO module going to a Brocade FC switch which in turn connects to a DotHill SAN. All storage traffic is FC. Even though the 57810 is a CNA, it will only deal with storage connectivity in this case.
We have been battling for two days trying to get the switch to see the CNA. We aim to use the FC <>FCoE bridging capabilities of the MXL but so far with no success. The FC switch can see the WWN of each external interface of the Flex IO module so we have some progress. This was completed by applying an fcoe-map to the external interfaces (F0/41 and F0/42) and an fcoe-map and dcb-map to the internal interface (Te0/1)
I believe i need to see the WWN of each port on the CNA but cannot identify how to do this. When i run the 'show npiv devices brief' command i am presented with no devices. However when i run 'show fcoe map' command i am presented with what looks like successful establishment of the mapping
Can someone advise on the steps i can take to get this up and running. The end goal is to have Vmware ESxi host able to communicate via the 2 x FC uplinks and use the presented storage as vmfs
Thanks
Anonymous
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March 9th, 2018 13:00
Here are links to a whitepaper and configuration video.
Whitepaper: http://dell.to/2tz1b1z
Video: http://bit.ly/1GeZZx6
I suggesting using these examples to compare with what you currently have configured. This should give you some idea what might be missing, or what just needs to be tweaked in the config.
Let us know what you find, or any other questions you have.
Neal H
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March 9th, 2018 22:00
Hi there,
Thank you for your reply. The document and Humair's are great resources and these were two of the guides I used to get me started, along with a great section in the Dell MXL config guide which gives a detailed example of FCoE and NPIV gateway configuration. The major difference in my configuration is that the traffic is not converged so Fabric B is purely storage. All guides i have seen detail mixed traffic using the CNA but my set up does not require this separation.
That said, I do not believe this to be my issue. I think I may have problems with the function of the Flex IO as an NPIV gateway because when I do a 'show npiv gateway' command on the MXL i am prseented with no devices. I confirmed the upstream FC switch is NPIV aware. Also, I am unclear on the config of the CNA which appears enabled for FCoE in the QLogic BIOS setup but when I look in the CMC, the FCoE-WWN partition shows as disabled. Should this be so, or should it be enabled? (There is no SRIOV/NPAR in play here). The FC switch sees WWN information from the Flex IO interfaces but I think the CNA needs to be active in this configuration so it can talk to the FC storage?
Bryhir
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April 23rd, 2018 12:00
Have you been able to make this work? I am trying to configure in the exact same way, and having the exact same issues. Please let me know if you resolved it and what you did to get it going.
Thank you
Bryhir
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April 24th, 2018 07:00
Ok so i had the same issue as Neil. I opened a case this morning with Dell support and after a few hours we got everything working. My switch configuration was spot on, the issue had to do with the Host server. I'm running ESXi 6.5 and it did not see the FCoE adapter properly. The tech i worked with sent me this article, and sure enough once i enabled and discovered the adapters everything came to life.
Here is the article we referenced.
https://esxsi.com/2017/07/29/esxi65-missing-fcoe/
Thanks
Anonymous
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April 24th, 2018 07:00
Here is the info that Neal shared with me, in regards to what he did to get this working in his environment.
"The FCOE-MAP value on the switches was originally set as SAN_FABRIC_B and was the same on both B1 and B2 switches – this was changed to SAN_FABRIC_B1 and SAN_FABRIC_B2 to reflect each fabric
The FC VLAN on switch B1 and B2 was 1002 and 1003 respectively. We saw connectivity on VLAN 1003 (FLOGI and NPIV data) but not on 1002. We changed the VLAN to 1003 and the NPIV kicked into life, and FLOGI info was seen. This is odd as the documentation we have seen details two different VLANs on each fabric rather than a single one. This was the crucial change I believe."
Hope this helps