cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
478
Views
0
Helpful
1
Replies

FCOE

simon clarke
Level 1
Level 1

Hi All 

I am studying for my CCNA DC, I am having a hard time getting my head around fcoe. Would i be right in thinking it is just one ethernet port that uses the fcoe standards on it and allows jumbo frames or is it multiple ethernet ports bundled together on a port channel to allow for fiber  speeds?

Thanks in advance 

Simon 

1 Reply 1

Manish Gogna
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hi Simon,

The following white paper on FCoE explains it in detail

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/UF_FCoE_final.html

Connection Host/Switch

A server connects to an FC fabric via an HBA. These servers also feature another set of network adapters to connect to an Ethernet network. For each server, separate cards with separate cables connect to separate switches, as shown on the left side of Figure 3.

Figure 3 Host-Switch Connection

The solution suggested in this guide (shown on the right side of Figure 3) consists in replacing the HBA and the Ethernet card with a converged network adapter (CNA). This unique CNA connects via a single 10 Gigabit link to an Ethernet switch that is also an FC forwarder (FCF); that is, an Ethernet switch with FCoE capabilities.

For each server, at least two HBAs, two cables (typically with Small Form-Factor Pluggable [SFP] and a transceiver), and two FC ports on an access FC switch are saved with the converged solution. This immediate CAPEX reduction is further complemented by OPEX savings because the model requires fewer devices and thus less power and cooling.

Figure 3 also shows that the CNA is controlled by two different drivers for FC and Ethernet. This means that the virtualization of FC traffic over Ethernet is entirely transparent to the operating system of the server because the CNA appears as two distinct cards. The FC traffic, represented by the green line, is transported over Ethernet to a virtual FC interface on the access switch. From there, it is forwarded using native FC interfaces in the particular FCoE at the edge scenario described in this document.

Manish

Review Cisco Networking for a $25 gift card