Configure FCoE Nexus 5548UP - UCS 6120

[Juan Pablo Hidalgo Villacres]

Hi, I am a networking guy and i need to understand which configuration do i need to connect 2 UCS 6120 to my Nexus 5000 (2 with VPC),

I know that i must activate npiv and fcoe feature, and read about creating vsans and vfc, my first question is does anybody have a procedure? (for example: 1.- You must create a vsan, 2.- You need to associate vsan with vlans, 3.- etc)..

Secondly, i have some doubts,

1.- If i have fc interfaces do i need to create an vfc interface? (or this is only if i am going to use the 10G ethernet interfaces?.)

2.- Why i need to bind the vsan to the vlans?.

Please help me with this, the SAN world is new to me!!

Hope you could help me,

Regards,

Juan Pablo Hidalgo

[vsathiam]

Ioizosko,

Since you are using Nexus 5k, you have 2 options:

Option 1:

For Storage traffic, 'dedicate' 1 or more FCoE Uplinks from Fabric Interconnects to N5k

Nexus 5k-1 (1 or more links ) directly connected to Fabric Interconnect A

Nexus 5k-2 (1 or more links ) directly connected to Fabric Interconnect B

For Ethernet traffic, use vPC as shown in the example in previous posts.

Nexus 5k-1 and Nexus 5k-2 (1 or more links ) directly connected to Fabric Interconnect A

Nexus 5k-1 and Nexus 5k-2 (1 or more links ) directly connected to Fabric Interconnect B

Option 2:

If you want Ethernet and Storage traffic to use same links, dedicate 1 or more FCoE Uplinks (Converged uplinks - carry FCoE and Ethernet LAN traffic) from Fabric Interconnects to N5k - ( do not vPC )

Storage and Ethernet -

Nexus 5k-1 (1 or more converged links ) directly connected to Fabric Interconnect A

Nexus 5k-2 (1 or more converged links ) directly connected to Fabric Interconnect B

As of today, you cannot use vPC to carry both Ethernet and Storage traffic.

I suggest you take a look at the following presentation -

https://www.ciscolive365.com/connect/sessionDetail.ww?SESSION_ID=5927&backBtn=true

[Asif Irfan]

Hello vsathiam,  Thanks for the detailed info. Could you please share the config for the 2 options proposed? That would help.  One question, do we really need the vPC for ethernet traffic or we can use single link as well?

[vsathiam]

Hi Asif,

Please check the following link (

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/SBA/February2013/Cisco_SBA_DC_UnifiedComputingSystemDeploymentGuide-Feb2013.pdf ) to understand how separate FCoE and Ethernet Uplinks are setup.

With vPC setup (for ethernet traffic), you get benefits of load-balancing (traffic spread across multiple links, in addition to hardware node redundancy), maximize bandwidth utilization ..etc

-Vignesh