Brocade 4424 and Nexus 5548UP Interoperability

[DJireland]

Hi,

We are moving from a Brocade SAN infrastructure to a Cisco Nexus using Nexus 5548UP SAN switches.

Our Dell Blade chassis have Brocade M4424 switches which will be connected to the new Cisco infrastructure. 

Can anyone tell me ( or point me in the right direction) if this is supported and if so how do I configure the Nexus to allow interoperability between the two?

Thanks in advance,

DJ

[Walter Dey]

Usually, the Blade switches are configured as NPV, and the Northbound Nexus 5548UP as NIPV. This is recommended, Standards based, and therefore TAC supported. No interop issue !

Any Brocade switch connected to a MDS and/or Nexus 5k in Interop mode is not recommended;

Hope that helps ?

Walter.

[DJireland]

Hi Walter,

Thanks for your reply.

Our Dell M1000e (with the 4424 blades) is connected to two Brocade 200e switches via one link from each blade. Other servers are connected directly to the 200E switches.

The Nexus has NIPV enabled, so is it just a case of connecting another link from the 4424 to the Nexus?

The plan is to eventually move all hosts onto the Nexus and remove the 200E switches.

Do you know of any comparability documentation for the Nexus and 4424 switches, I can't find anything on the Cisco site to say what FW versions are required on both sides or even if it is supported at all.

Thanks again for your reply.

S

[Walter Dey]

Hi

The Brocade M4424 Fibre Channel blade switch provides 4Gb storage area network (SAN) connectivity for data centers deploying Dell blade servers.

    Up to 24 ports available for connecting up to 16 servers and up to eight external SAN ports

    Available as full-fabric Brocade SAN switch or N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) Access Gateway SAN switches

As you see, the 4424 can be either configured as a regular FC switch, or a NPIV access gateway ?

Q. which mode are you running ?

Connecting 4424 with Nexus 5k: go with N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) Access Gateway SAN switch