the configuration about port vsan

[David Tian]

Dear all experts,

should I ask a question about when should I deploy a port vsan on storage network ?

just like :

vsan database

vlan 10 interface fc1/1

the device including N5K,N7K and MDS 9000. the possible  scenarios including :

1. FC port to a host;

2 FC port with trunking;

3 FC port with non-trunking;

4 FC NPV port.

5. FCOE port to a host;

6. FCOE port with trunking;

7. FCOE port with non-trunking;

8.FCOE NPV port.

Is there  a standard policy for it ? 

Thanks a lot,

Br,

David

[Walter Dey]

Hi David

Talking about FC.

Every FC port has to be in a VSAN, by default in VSAN 1, which should never be used in production. 

FC N-ports, connecting end devices (frames don't have a VSAN tag, but the port is assigned a VSAN)

FC E-Ports, connecting other FC switches over ISL.

- a ISL can be trunking, meaning transporting multiple VSAN tagged frames (only possible, if peer supports VSAN's, eg. Cisco MDS, N5k,...

- a ISL can be non trunking, in which case only one VSAN is linked to a peer FC switch, which most likely is non Cisco switch (e.g. Brocade), the FC frames don't have a VSAN tag.

- every E-port (trunking or non trunking) is assigned a VSAN.

Walter.

[David Tian]

Hi Walter,

Thanks for your professional guide on here. and sorry for the unclear description. 

what I mean "port vsan" is to assign the service vsan to the port. for example, the storage service is running on vsan 100. when should I also have the additional action to assigned vsan 100 to port ?

is  there any different between FC and FCOE  for that?

 what I understand as below , please correct me if misunderstand.

1. FC port to a host------need to port vsan

2 FC port with trunking ---- trunk allow also need to assign port vsan

3 FC port with non-trunking  ---- non trunk need to assign port vsan

4 FC NPV port.           ------ NP port and F port, need to port vsan

5. FCOE port to a host ----- need to port vsan

6. FCOE port with trunking;   ----- trunk allow also need to assign port vsan

7. FCOE port with non-trunking;------ non trunk need to assign port vsan

8.FCOE NPV port. ------ NP port and F port, need to port vsan

Thanks,

Br,

David

[Walter Dey · Accepted solution]

Hi David

For simplicity, I only consider one of the 2 FC fabrics, eg. Fabric A

Lets assume you have 2 VSAN's in Fabric A, 10 for storage, and 20 for backup.

For a access port (N-port in FC terms), you would assign the fc ports to vsan 10, resp 20.

If you have eg. 2 MDS in your fabric A, which are interconnected by a trunking ISL (E-port), then you assign the ISL FC ports to vsan X, and the trunk would allow vsan 10 AND 20 frames.

Q. what is X ? It could be anything (don't use VSAN 1), eg. 10, or 20, or 30

Yes, FCoE is essentially FC; all the FC concepts apply (eg. zoning, multipathing, vsan,....) see eg.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/servers-unified-computing/ucs-manager/116188-configure-fcoe-00.html#anc10

Walter.

[David Tian]

Thanks Walter,

I think I got your point , thanks a lot for your detail instruction.

David