Storage VDC in N7k

[mohsin-raza]

I have N7k with Sup1 and F248XP-25 card, with 6.0 NX-OS. I have already used 2 VDCs apart from default, and i am looking to know about the pros and cons of using storage VDC. The following questions are still in my mind.

- Is Storage VDC compatible with F2 card? Last i saw on some blog it was available with F1 card only.

- The the virtual SAN switch in N7k will give me FCOE, but do i need to have FCOE enabled on the child switches i.e. N5k? Do i need to pay for any license?

- We have HP BEs to connect to the SAN storage through the networking devices... Can i use the brocade SAN switches as access switches and connect them to N7k on trunk?

- Do i have to worry about any license limitations?

Will appreciate if someone could help me in finding the answers. A refernce to a link with precise information will help little, but a direct answer to each question here in the forum will help me more.

regards,

Mohsin

[Jerry Ye]

1) N7K with F2 will only have FCoE supports with SUP2 (license requirement). If you have SUP1, your only choice is F1 for FCoE.

2) If you fix the your SUP issue, FCoE will be available in N7K in the storage VDC. With N5K, you can do both FCoE or FC, but you need storage license on it.

3) I am not a storage engineer and I will not be able to answer to question 3.

4) The only license limitation is F2 storage license requires SUP2. If you have SUP1, you need F1 to handle storage.

HTH,

jerry