Dell SmartFabric OS10 User Guide Release 10.5.3

Fibre Channel

OS10 switches with Fibre Channel (FC) ports operate in one of the following modes: Direct attach (F_Port), NPIV Proxy Gateway (NPG). In the FSB mode, you cannot use the FC ports.

E_Port

Expansion port (E_Port) in a switch is used to connect two fiber channel switches to form a multiswitch SAN fabric.

The default port mode in a multiswitch setup is F. You can create a multiswitch fabric by configuring the port mode as E on the interface that connects two switches, which creates an interswitch link (ISL) consecutively. Enable the multiswitch fabric mode using the feature fc [domain-id domain-id-val | npg | fip-snooping [with-cvl] | multi-switch] command in CONFIGURATION mode.

OS10(config)# feature fc multi-switch

F_Port

Fibre Channel fabric port (F_Port) is the switch port that connects the FC fabric to a host. S4148U-ON switches support F_Port.

Enable Fibre Channel F_Port mode globally using the feature fc domain-ID domain-ID command in CONFIGURATION mode.

OS10(config)# feature fc domain-id 100

NPIV Proxy Gateway

A node port (N_Port) is a port on a network node that acts as a host or storage device, and is used in FC point-to-point or FC switched fabric topologies.

N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) allows multiple N_Port IDs to share a single physical N_Port.

The NPIV Proxy Gateway (NPG) provides Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) to Fibre Channel (FC) bridging and conversely. Starting from OS 10.4.1, NPG supports FC to FC switching as well.

The S4148U-ON supports both, CNA and HBA, in NPG mode.

Enable NPG mode globally using the feature fc npg command in CONFIGURATION mode.

To change the port mode from default N_Port, use the fc port-mode F command on FC interfaces.

FIP snooping bridge

FCoE encapsulates FC frames over Ethernet networks. FCoE Initialization protocol (FIP) establishes FC connectivity with Ethernet ports. FSB implements security characteristics to admit valid FCoE traffic in the Ethernet networks. FIP and FCoE provide FC emulation-over-Ethernet links. OS10 switches with Ethernet ports operate in FSB.

OS10(config)# feature fip-snooping

An Ethernet switch operating in FSB mode snoops FIP packets on FCoE-enabled VLANs and discovers the following information:

• End nodes (E-Nodes)
• Fibre Channel Forwarder (FCF)
• Connections between E-Nodes and FCFs
• Sessions between E-Nodes and FCFs

Using the discovered information, the switch installs ACL entries that provide security and point-to-point link emulation.

Configuration notes

Dell PowerSwitch S4148U-ON:

The total errors count in the show interface fibrechannel command output displays incorrect values during FC port flaps, IOM reboot, or port conversion from ETH to FC, followed by bringing up of the FC port.