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Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) allows Fibre Channel and Ethernet traffic to be carried on the same physical Ethernet connection between the switch and the servers.
The Fibre Channel portion of FCoE is configured as a virtual Fibre Channel interface. Logical Fibre Channel features (such as interface mode) can be configured on virtual Fibre Channel interfaces.
A virtual Fibre Channel (vfc) interface must be bound to an interface before it can be used. The binding is to a physical Ethernet interface when the converged network adapter (CNA) is directly connected to the switch or port channel when the CNA connects to the Fibre Channel Forwarder (FCF) over a virtual port channel (vPC).
A virtual fabric (VF) port in an FCoE network acts as a fabric port that connects to a peripheral device (host or disk) operating as an N port. A VF port can be attached to only one N port.
A virtual expansion (VE) port acts as an expansion port in an FCoE network. VE ports can connect multiple FCoE switches together in the network. You can bind a VE port to a physical ethernet port or a port channel.
Traffic is load balanced across equal cost E_Ports and VE_Ports based on SID, DID, and OXID. Traffic across members of a port channel that a VE_Port is bound to is load balanced based on SID, DID, and OXID.
Connectivity from an FCoE NPV bridge to the FCF is supported only over point-to-point links. These links can be individual Ethernet interfaces or port channel interfaces. For each FCF connected to an Ethernet/port-channel interface, a vFC interface must be created and bound to it. These vFC interfaces must be configured as VNP ports.
On the VNP port, the FCoE NPV bridge emulates an FCoE-capable host with multiple FCoE nodes (ENodes), each with a unique ENodes MAC address. By default, the VNP port is enabled in trunk mode.
Multiple VSANs can be configured on the VNP port. The FCoE VLANs that correspond to the VNP port VSANs must be configured on the bound Ethernet interface.
Parameters |
Default |
---|---|
FCoE feature |
Not installed, disabled |
FC-Map |
0E.FC.00 |
Fabric priority |
128 |
Advertisement interval |
8 seconds |
Configuring Virtual Interfaces
A unique, dedicated VLAN must be configured at every converged access switch to carry traffic for each virtual fabric (VSAN) in the SAN (for example, VLAN 1002 for VSAN 10, VLAN 1003 for VSAN 2, and so on). If you enable MST, you must use a separate Multiple Spanning Tree (MST) instance for FCoE VLANs.
This example shows how to map VLAN 200 to VSAN 200 on a Cisco MDS 9000 Series Switch:
switch(config)# vlan 200 switch(config-vlan)# fcoe vsan 200
To use FCoE, you must first create Virtual Fibre Channel (VFC) interfaces. Then, you must bind the VFC interfaces to physical interfaces before FCoE can be used.
This example shows how to bind a virtual Fibre Channel interface to an Ethernet interface:
switch# configure terminal switch(config)# interface vfc 4 switch(config-if)# bind interface ethernet 1/4
This example shows how to delete a virtual Fibre Channel interface:
switch# configure terminal switch(config)# no interface vfc 4
You can create a virtual Fibre Channel port channel interface that automatically binds to the port channel with the same interface number.
For the Cisco MDS 9700 switches, MDS 9500 switches, and MDS 9250i switch, ensure that you create the Ethernet port channel interface before you create the virtual Fibre Channel port channel interface.
You must configure unique, dedicated VLAN at every converged access switch to carry traffic for each Virtual Fabric (VSAN) in the SAN (for example, VLAN 1002 for VSAN 1, VLAN 1003 for VSAN 2, and so on). If you enable MST, you must use a separate MST instance for FCoE VLANs.
Step 1 |
configure terminal
Example: switch# configure terminal switch(config)# Enters configuration mode. |
Step 2 | vsan database
Example: switch(config)# vsan database switch(config-vsan-db)# Enters VSAN configuration mode. |
Step 3 | (Optional)vsan
vsan-id
Example: switch(config-vsan-db)# vsan 2 Creates the VSAN. The vsan-id range is from 1 to 4094 and must map to a VLAN on the physical Ethernet interface that is bound to the virtual Fibre Channel interface. |
Step 4 | Enter one of the following commands:
Example: switch(config-vsan-db)# vsan 2 interface vfc 4 Configures the association between the VSAN and virtual Fibre Channel interface or virtual Fibre Channel port channel. The vsan-id range is from 1 to 4094 and must map to a VLAN on the physical Ethernet interface or port channel that is bound to the virtual Fibre Channel interface or virtual Fibre Channel port channel. The vfc-id range is from 1 to 8192. Us the no form of this command to dissassociate the connection between the VSAN and virtual Fibre Channel interface or virtual Fibre Channel port channel. |
Step 5 | (Optional)
show vsan
Example: switch(config-vsan-db)# show vsan Displays information about the VSAN. |
Step 6 | (Optional)
copy running-config startup-config
Example: switch(config-vsan-db)# copy running-config startup-config Copies the running configuration to the startup configuration. |
This example shows how to associate a virtual Fibre Channel interface to a VSAN:
switch# configure terminal
switch(config)# vsan database
switch(config-vsan-db)# vsan 2 interface vfc 4
The VFID check verifies that the VSAN configuration is correct on both ends of a VE link. You can turn off the VFID check for VE ports to allow VE loopback configuration between to VE ports on the same switch.
This example shows how to enable VE loopback for a Cisco MDS 9700 or MDS 9500, or an MDS 9250i switch:
switch# configure terminal switch(config)# fcoe veloopback
To display configuration information about virtual Fibre Channel interfaces, perform one of the following tasks:
Command |
Purpose |
---|---|
show interface vfc vfc-id |
Displays the detailed configuration of the specified Fibre Channel interface. |
show interface brief |
Displays the status of all interfaces. |
show vlan fcoe |
Displays the mapping of FCoE VLANs to VSANs. |
This example shows how to display a virtual Fibre Channel interface bound to an Ethernet interface:
switch# show interface vfc 3
vfc3 is up
Bound interface is Ethernet1/37
Hardware is Virtual Fibre Channel
Port WWN is 20:02:00:0d:ec:6d:95:3f
Admin port mode is F, trunk mode is on
snmp link state traps are enabled
Port mode is F, FCID is 0x490100
Port vsan is 931
1 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 bytes/sec, 0 frames/sec
1 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 bytes/sec, 0 frames/sec
0 frames input, 0 bytes
0 discards, 0 errors
0 frames output, 0 bytes
0 discards, 0 errors
Interface last changed at Thu May 21 04:44:42 2009
This example shows how to display the status of all the interfaces on the switch (some output has been removed for brevity):
switch# show interface brief
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interface Vsan Admin Admin Status SFP Oper Oper Port
Mode Trunk Mode Speed Channel
Mode (Gbps)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fc3/1 1 auto on trunking swl TE 2 --
fc3/2 1 auto on sfpAbsent -- -- --
...
fc3/8 1 auto on sfpAbsent -- -- --
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interface Status IP Address Speed MTU Port
Channel
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethernet1/1 hwFailure -- -- 1500 --
Ethernet1/2 hwFailure -- -- 1500 --
Ethernet1/3 up -- 10000 1500 --
...
Ethernet1/39 sfpIsAbsen -- -- 1500 --
Ethernet1/40 sfpIsAbsen -- -- 1500 --
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interface Status IP Address Speed MTU
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mgmt0 up 172.16.24.41 100 1500
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interface Vsan Admin Admin Status SFP Oper Oper Port
Mode Trunk Mode Speed Channel
Mode (Gbps)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
vfc 1 1 F -- down -- -- --
...
This example shows how to display the mapping between the VLANs and VSANs on the switch:
switch# show vlan fcoe
VLAN VSAN Status
-------- -------- --------
15 15 Operational
20 20 Operational
25 25 Operational
30 30 Non-operational
The following example shows how to configure the FCoE VLAN and a virtual Fibre Channel interface:
Step 1 | Enable the associated VLAN and map the VLAN to a VSAN.
switch(config)# vlan 200 switch(config-vlan)# fcoe vsan 200 switch(config-vlan)# exit | ||
Step 2 | Configure the VLAN on a physical Ethernet interface.
switch# configure terminal switch(config)# interface ethernet 1/4 switch(config-if)# spanning-tree port type edge trunk switch(config-if)# switchport mode trunk switch(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan 1,200 switch(config-if)# exit | ||
Step 3 | Create a virtual Fibre Channel interface and bind it to a physical Ethernet interface.
switch(config)# interface vfc 4 switch(config-if)# bind interface ethernet 1/4
| ||
Step 4 | Associate the virtual Fibre Channel interface to the VSAN.
switch(config)# vsan database switch(config-vsan)# vsan 200 interface vfc 4 switch(config-vsan)# exit | ||
Step 5 | (Optional) Display membership information for the VSAN.
switch# show vsan 200 membership vsan 200 interfaces vfc 4 | ||
Step 6 | (Optional)Display the interface information for the virtual Fibre Channel interface.
switch# show interface vfc 4 vfc4 is up Bound interface is Ethernet1/4 Hardware is Virtual Fibre Channel Port WWN is 20:02:00:0d:ec:6d:95:3f Port WWN is 20:02:00:0d:ec:6d:95:3f snmp link state traps are enabled Port WWN is 20:02:00:0d:ec:6d:95:3f APort WWN is 20:02:00:0d:ec:6d:95:3f snmp link state traps are enabled Port mode is F, FCID is 0x490100 Port vsan is 200 1 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 bytes/sec, 0 frames/sec 1 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 bytes/sec, 0 frames/sec 0 frames input, 0 bytes 0 discards, 0 errors 0 frames output, 0 bytes 0 discards, 0 errors Interface last changed at Thu Mar 11 04:44:42 2010 |
To display FCoE configuration information, perform one of these tasks in the context of storage VDC:
Command |
Purpose |
||
---|---|---|---|
show fcoe |
Displays whether FCoE is enabled on the switch. |
||
show fcoe database |
Displays the contents of the FCoE database.
|
||
show interface vfc [number] |
Displays information about the vFC interfaces. |
||
show interface [interface number] fcoe |
Displays the FCoE settings for an interface or all interfaces. |
This example shows how to verify that the FCoE capability is enabled:
switch# show fcoe Global FCF details FCF-MAC is 00:0d:ec:6d:95:00 FC-MAP is 0e:fc:00 FCF Priority is 128 FKA Advertisement period for FCF is 8 seconds
This example shows how to display the FCoE database:
switch# show fcoe database ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTERFACE FCID PORT NAME MAC ADDRESS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ vfc3 0x490100 21:00:00:1b:32:0a:e7:b8 00:c0:dd:0e:5f:76
This example shows how to display the FCoE settings for an interface.
switch# show interface ethernet 1/37 fcoe Ethernet1/37 is FCoE UP vfc3 is Up FCID is 0x490100 PWWN is 21:00:00:1b:32:0a:e7:b8 MAC addr is 00:c0:dd:0e:5f:76
Related Topic | Document Title |
---|---|
Command reference |
Cisco NX-OS FCoE Command Reference Guide, Nexus 7000 and MDS 9500 |
Configuration guide |
Cisco MDS 9000 Series NX-OS Quality of Service Configuration Guide |
Cisco NX-OS licensing |
Cisco MDS 9000 Series Licensing Guide |
Standard/RFC | Title |
---|---|
T11 FC BB-5 | Fibre Channel Backbone 5 |
MIB | MIBs Link |
---|---|
To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco IOS releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL: |
Description | Link |
---|---|
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