Questions about Nexus 5k in NPV mode

[dylan.ebner]

I am in the process of deploying a UCS platform with two Nexus 5k switches for LAN and SAN connectivity. Behind the 5ks are two old McData 4700 fabric switches which are no longer supported or compatable with anything. I have the last available firmware installed on the McData's so they support NPIV. I tried connecting the Mcdata's and the 5k's via ISL but according to Cisco TAC the zoning will only properly transfer from the 5ks to the 4700. I witnessed this behavior as the zoning would take 20 hours to update from the 4700 to the 5ks. Next we tried connecting the FIC from the UCS to the McData and that doesn't work either because Cisco dropped support for the 4700s in ESX 5. Now I am back to trying to connect the 4700's to the 5k's again using NPV. I have a few questions though:

1. Cisco documentation says that in NPV mode I cannot configure any storage ports on the 5k's. Does that mean when I buy a new SAN I will not be able to connect it to the 5k's without disabling NPV first?

2. When using NPV mode, do I need to zone the 5k's and the 4700s or does the 5k just pass the FC through to the downstream switches?

3. If I do need to zone, can I use different VSANs for the different fabrics? Or is it similar when using ISL where VSAN's are no supported?

Thanks

[dynamoxxx]

do you have FC ports in your FI, if yes and FI is in host-end mode ..could you connect it to 4700 (with NPIV enabled) ?

@dynamoxxx

[dylan.ebner]

We do have FC ports and we tried this, but Cisco dropped support for the 4700s in the 5.1 esx release and it will not see the SANs. ESX 4.1 does work though.

[dynamoxxx]

you are saying when FI is connected directly to 4700, ESX 5.1 hosts will not show up in "show port status" on McData ?

@dynamoxxx

[dylan.ebner]

what happens is when the server boots the HBA sees the array and boot lun, but when you start the ESX 5.1 install the server initiator logs out of the SAN and the boot lun disappears. If you use ESX 4.1 everything works fine. I opened a TAC case and they confirmed that the fnic driver in ESX 5.1 will not work with the 4700's directly connected to the FI.

[dynamoxxx]

interesting, do you have extra ports on your storage array to connect directly to 5k and do your zoning there ?

@dynamoxxx