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This chapter contains the following sections:
The Cisco Adapter Fabric Extender (FEX) feature allows you to create an FCoE connection to a FEX so that you can establish an FCoE connection to a server with a virtual interface card (VIC) adapter.
For example, you could use this feature to connect your Nexus switch to a Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Server that contains a Cisco UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card, or you could connect it to a third-party server that has a Broadcom BCM57712 Convergence Network Interface Card (C-NIC) installed.
The switch connects to the FEX through a virtual port channel (vPC) while the FEX connects to the server using a standard FCoE link between the FEX and the VIC adapter.
If you are using Enhanced vPC, the FEX can be associated with one and only one Cisco Nexus fabric for FCoE forwarding.
If you are using FabricPath, you must use a dedicated link for FCoE traffic.
If you are using a Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Server with a Cisco UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card (VIC), you must do the following:
Configure the VIC in Network Interface Virtualization (NIV) mode, which makes the two unified ports appear to the system as virtual Host Bus Adapters (vHBAs).
You cannot connect to the FEX through a VNP port. If this type of connection is used, NIV mode cannot be enabled on the VIC.
You must set the NIC mode on the Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Server to active-standby.
![]() Note | The HP chassis has internal HP-branded VirtualConnect cards (the specific model is HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-Port Module), which runs its own internal host-hiding NPV processes for both FC and Ethernet sides of things. Then the external links of that card go upstream to regular Cisco 2232PP FEX's, which are then attached to our Nexus core. |
This example show how to configure Cisco Adapter FEX with FCoE on SAN fabric A using FEX 101 and the Ethernet interface on channel 1 configured as a trunk port.
nexus5000-sanA(config)#configure terminal nexus5000-sanA(config)# install feature-set virtualization nexus5000-sanA(config)# feature-set virtualization nexus5000-sanA(config)# fex 101 nexus5000-sanA(config-fex)# fcoe nexus5000-sanA(config-fex)# interface ethernet 101/1/1 nexus5000-sanA(config-if)# switchport mode vntag nexus5000-sanA(config-if)# interface veth 2 nexus5000-sanA(config-if)# bind interface eth 101/1/1 channel 1 nexus5000-sanA(config-if)# switchport mode trunk nexus5000-sanA(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan 33 nexus5000-sanA(config-if)# interface vfc 4 nexus5000-sanA(config-if)# bind interface veth 2 nexus5000-sanA(config-if)# no shutdown
nexus5500-sanA(config)#configure terminal nexus5500-sanA(config)# install feature-set virtualization nexus5500-sanA(config)# feature-set virtualization nexus5500-sanA(config)# fex 101 nexus5500-sanA(config-fex)# fcoe nexus5500-sanA(config-fex)# interface ethernet 101/1/1 nexus5500-sanA(config-if)# switchport mode vntag nexus5500-sanA(config-if)# interface veth 2 nexus5500-sanA(config-if)# bind interface eth 101/1/1 channel 1 nexus5500-sanA(config-if)# switchport mode trunk nexus5500-sanA(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan 33 nexus5500-sanA(config-if)# interface vfc 4 nexus5500-sanA(config-if)# bind interface veth 2 nexus5500-sanA(config-if)# no shutdown
This example shows how to configure Cisco Adapter FEX with FCoE on SAN fabric B using FEX 102 and Ethernet interface on channel 2 as an access port:
nexus5000-sanB(config)#configure terminal nexus5000-sanB(config)# install feature-set virtualization nexus5000-sanB(config)# feature-set virtualization nexus5000-sanB(config)# fex 102 nexus5000-sanB(config-fex)# fcoe nexus5000-sanB(config-fex)# interface ethernet 102/1/1 nexus5000-sanB(config-if)# switchport mode vntag nexus5000-sanB(config-if)# interface veth 5 nexus5000-sanB(config-if)# bind interface eth 102/1/1 channel 2 nexus5000-sanB(config-if)# switchport mode access nexus5000-sanB(config-if)# switchport access vlan 40 nexus5000-sanB(config-if)# interface vfc 6 nexus5000-sanB(config-if)# bind interface veth 5 nexus5000-sanB(config-if)# no shutdown
nexus5500-sanB(config)#configure terminal nexus5500-sanB(config)# install feature-set virtualization nexus5500-sanB(config)# feature-set virtualization nexus5500-sanB(config)# fex 102 nexus5500-sanB(config-fex)# fcoe nexus5500-sanB(config-fex)# interface ethernet 102/1/1 nexus5500-sanB(config-if)# switchport mode vntag nexus5500-sanB(config-if)# interface veth 5 nexus5500-sanB(config-if)# bind interface eth 102/1/1 channel 2 nexus5500-sanB(config-if)# switchport mode access nexus5500-sanB(config-if)# switchport access vlan 40 nexus5500-sanB(config-if)# interface vfc 6 nexus5500-sanB(config-if)# bind interface veth 5 nexus5500-sanB(config-if)# no shutdown