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For a customer we need to connect a Brocade fabric to a Cisco fabric.
The Brocades are rebranded and now called HP 4/8 and 2/4 (I think). The 4/8 is an EMC 200E (or DS-220E) with a recent firmware (5.something). The Cisco's are MDS9124E's (in a Blade chassis) with SAN-OS 3.2 (3a).
Since both fabrics are already in production I wanted to try this out first, but I only have some old DS-16B2's in my lab (Brocade 3800 if I'm correct). These lab-switches have the 3.2.1c firmware on them.
Is there a way to safely test this connectivity in my lab ? Is is possible in the first place ?
What are the steps and caveats in the customer's set up ? (with supported switches)
The Brocades are rebranded and now called HP 4/8 and 2/4 (I think). The 4/8 is an EMC 200E (or DS-220E) with a recent firmware (5.something). The Cisco's are MDS9124E's (in a Blade chassis) with SAN-OS 3.2 (3a).
Since both fabrics are already in production I wanted to try this out first, but I only have some old DS-16B2's in my lab (Brocade 3800 if I'm correct). These lab-switches have the 3.2.1c firmware on them.
Is there a way to safely test this connectivity in my lab ? Is is possible in the first place ?
What are the steps and caveats in the customer's set up ? (with supported switches)
1019
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Posted June 13th, 2008 05:00
Try this link it's a good place to start.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/storage/san_switches/mds9000/interoperability/guide/ICG_bro.html1019
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Posted June 13th, 2008 05:00
Waaw. And I thought it was only possible with Brocade 5.x
I'm going to try this ! Thank you.
I'll let you know how it works out1019
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Posted June 13th, 2008 05:00
Hmmmmm.....
I have this setup: Cisco 9124 - Brocade 3800 (1) - Brocade 3800 (2)
On Brocade (2) I see the fabric now consists of 3 switches
On Brocade (1) I initially got the message that this was the only switch, but after I got the message "Received unknown interswitch command 1000000", I don't see anything anymore, not even that the fabric is this one switch
On Brocade (2) I now don't see anything anymore as well
On the Cisco I don't see the 2 Brocade's1019
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Posted June 13th, 2008 07:00
I noticed that EMC doesn't support my LAB-config (and it works... sort of), but does support my customer's config. And that's what matters after all.1019
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Posted June 13th, 2008 07:00
Please keep in mind that what Cisco supports in regards to interop between Brocade and Cisco isn't what EMC supports. It is always a good idea to review the EMC Support Matrix for what is supported and refer to the EMC Topology guide for additional recommendations. Both are available out on Powerlink.
Thank you.1019
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Posted June 13th, 2008 07:00
After 1 hour or so waiting and seeing these errors I just mentioned, everything appeared fine: on all 3 switches I can now see the whole fabric. I can create zones on all 3 switches and they are visible on the other switches as well.
However: after a short time I don't see the fabric as a whole anymore. I suspect it has to do with the supposed incompatibility of the old 3800's.
The DS-220E's are supported, so I expect no big problems there.
Gart1
10 Posts
1019
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Posted June 13th, 2008 05:00
Created a VSAN that ran 'interop mode 2'
Configured the ports on the Brocade to 'E' ports.
Turned on trunking for the Brocade 'E' ports
Set two ports on the MDS as 'E' ports
Plugged in the cables.
MDS switches logged into Brocades and imported the configs.
I was running SAN-OS 3.2.2c and on the Brocades 3.1.1a